Open Days

siobhanod93

Do ye go to open days for the colleges ye want to attend?

The St. Angela's open day is on next week for Home Ec teaching (In Sligo)
I live in Cork and it would be a lot of travelling for one day.

I'm not even 100% I want to do the course :eek::eek:

I'm just wondering would it be a good idea to go to.... :eek::eek:

Also and good/bad open days ye been to?

Luno

If you're set on doing a course there, it'd probably be a good idea. Get a feel of the area!

I haven't seen any benefit from Open Days, they're just big social gatherings!

EmptyWithMe

I think they can be really worth it. For example, I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but when I went to the social care talk in CIT the other day I was so bored! I've swapped my number 2 and 1 choices for CIT just 'cause of the open day. I'm way more interested in my second choice!

Open days also give you a chance to get to know the college a bit. I was struggling to choose between UCC and CIT, but now I'm dead set on CIT!

bscm

Last year I found Open Days can be good, but shadowing days are much better. Email the course office of whatever area you are interested in and they'll either set you up with a first year student or else send you a timetable so you can come along to the lectures and get a real feel of the course and college.

Most places are accommodating to secondary school students, they want to help you make the right choice so you don't end up transferring because it wasn't what you expected/wanted.

Best to email early in September and be in 6th year... 5th years might get a bit overwhelmed with the course material

wemsie

I'm in Leaving Cert. too and I say definitely go! It really gives you a feel for the campus and the type of work you'll be doing, really worth the effort. I'm hoping to study English along with something else next year, so I'll probably be going for Arts or English with Drama. This year I've gone to NUIG, UL and UCD.
NUIG - Really well organised, I enjoyed all of the lectures and the staff gave some great information, it's staying on my CAO. I live just outside Galway so I was already familiar with the area.
UL - Absolute disaster. It was going to be my option 3 or 4, but now I'm really glad I went because it wasn't for me at all. Bad organising on theire behalf meant I only got to one talk, and even that one didn't impress me. Didn't like the campus, was really awkward to get to in my opinion.
UCD - Fantastic. It was going to be my first choice and still is, the campus is nice, it's a bit far out from town but I can deal with that. Went to a good few lectures and found them all interersting and insightful, the lecturers were really friendly and I felt really confident about my decisions.

Hope that's some help to someone!

Duffman K

I've been to UCD, DCU, and NUI maynooth so far.

I've found them helpful to get a feel of what a place is like. It's difficult to know what a college is like from a piece of paper and its important to go somewhere that you actually like. You dont want to go somewhere every day for 2-4 years dreading it.

I really enjoyed UCD and DCU, maynooth not so much.

I'll be going to DIT and Trinity this saturday.

bscm

Duffman K wrote: »

I'll be going to DIT and Trinity this saturday.

ignore the crowds at TCD it's not normally that packed during the normal term time aside from the odd bunch of tourists in Front Square and the rush at the turn of the hour, it's one of the most relaxed places in town IMO

checkcheek

ill be going to tcd on friday alone, none of my friends can travel in

bscm

checkcheek wrote: »

ill be going to tcd on friday alone, none of my friends can travel in

I found it better going by myself, you don't have to miss anything unless there's a timetable clash and you can always chat to the people you bump into it's almost preparation for Fresher's Week

FueledByAisling

I went to the IADT open day on Friday and very glad I did! I was seriously considering Visual Communications and after going there looking at the work, portfolios and talking to the lecture I quickly learned that it wasn't the course for me at all!

Bears and Vodka

Went to DCU and going to TCD. DCU was epic (in my opinion obviously), really enjoyed it, seems like a really friendly and fun place and the lecturers were fairly sound!
I know TCD will probably packed on Saturday..

AlmightyDublin

subz3r0 wrote: »

Went to DCU and going to TCD. DCU was epic (in my opinion obviously), really enjoyed it, seems like a really friendly and fun place and the lecturers were fairly sound!
I know TCD will probably packed on Saturday..

What about Friday?