Open Days: The University of Salford

I've decided to start a new little series on my blog where I write about the different universities that I'm going to see over the next two months. I'm really excited about it, as I've mentioned before because its always been something that I've wanted to do. And because I'm going to be writing straight after I visit each uni, when it comes to actually applying, I can always go back and read the post on how I felt at that time. I also feel like this may be helpful for people wondering how Open Days work, whether they are thinking of going to University themselves or are having trouble picking one. This is the first installment so I hope you enjoy it; it is only my opinion of the day so don't be put off if you get a different vibe from a place or have your heart set on somewhere that I'm maybe not too keen on. Everyone has different experiences of where they want to go so its completely subjective.

The first Open Day was to The University of Salford in Manchester. Now it started at 10am so me and my mom left the house at about 8 o'clock. I ended up going into the university on my own and I thought I was going to be nervous but I really wasn't. It was a bit difficult trying to navigate around the campus; I tried going into the main building because I had no idea where the Department of Psychology was. Fortunately there were student ambassadors all around and they directed me to the correct building. It was kind of crazy trying to register because I didn't know you had to print off the tickets and I couldn't connect to the WiFi on my phone to show the automatic email. Luckily for me, the woman at the stand had my name on a list and so just let me in anyway. 

I spent about an hour speaking to 2 stalls there. The first one was called Counselling and Psychotherapy and I had looked at that course a few months ago at school. I did enjoy speaking to them about it but I do think that it's not really what I want to do in the future. Anyway, the second stall I went to was the Sociology and Criminology one and I really liked it. I hadn't thought about doing Sociology before and I don't think I actually will but I liked hearing about it. I also went to the talk at 11am on it because I liked it. There weren't a lot of people there but it was fascinating because you can do Sociology or Criminology as a single course, or you can do a joint course on both. I think that if I wasn't as focused in Psychology as I am, I definitely think that I would have done Criminology.

This talk ended at about 12 and I did have plans to take an accommodation tour but they were 30 minutes long and I needed to eat as well as go to the Psychology stall. So I went to lunch at the cafeteria by myself, there wasn't a lot of food there so I just had a plate of curly chips. They were really REALLY good.

After I'd finished, I went to the Psychology talk and spoke to the man there about the course and things. He recommended things that I could do in order to gain more experience or good books to read about things they teach there. He was really nice and helpful and I really liked it there. The talk was in a seminar room filled with people which just shows how popular the course is. Loads of people asked questions that I hadn't really thought about and the woman speaking was able to answer them straight away. She knew what she was talking about and that made me trust in the course as a whole. I also found out that you can do Psychology, Psychology and Counselling or Psychology and Criminology which I know that if I did decide to go there, I would struggle picking which I would definitely go to.

Now there was a chance at the end to take a tour of the Psychology Department but it was already 10 past 2 and I was already late for when my mom said she'd pick me up. And that was my entire day at The University of Salford; overall, I really really enjoyed it. I think that I probably should have planned everything better because like I said, I didn't see everything I would have liked to. I think that's something I will definitely do when I visit my next one, which is The University of Lincoln on the 4th of October. I will write about that day as well so make sure you are following my blog for more updates.

Check out my last post: Growing Up - where I write about how I need to be my "own" person