After choosing the universities that you’re interested in, visiting these is a must to see if they’re the right place for you. Try and visit all the universities you’re interested in before you apply or reply to your offers, as this will give you the best chance of knowing where you’d be happiest living. If you can’t visit, many universities offer Virtual Open Days and 360° tours of the campus on their websites.

Prepare

•             Make a list of the universities you’d like to visit.

•             Check out the dates of their Open Days on their websites.

•             Make a timetable of when you can visit each one.

•             Register for the ones you have an interest in going to.

What to do at the Open Day

•             Listen to talks that have been put on by the University.

•             Visit your department, lecture theatres, libraries, laboratories and IT suites.

•             See the accommodation first-hand.

•             Visit the university’s bars, restaurants and catering facilities.

•             Visit the town/city itself, and the surrounding area – can you see yourself living there?

•             Speak to current students and staff.

Attending an Open Day is a great way of seeing the University first-hand, and perhaps the only way of seeing if you could live there. Open Days also have a way of changing your thoughts about a place, and can propel one of your last choices into your number one.