How Many University Open Days Should You Go To? A Year 12 Guide

The honest answer: four to six is the sweet spot for most students. Some get value out of going to ten. A few get away with two. Going to twelve is almost always a mistake.

Here’s how to think about the right number for you.

The four phases of open day attendance

University visits roughly fall into four stages, each with a different purpose:

Phase 1 — Exploratory (Spring of Year 12, March to May)
Goal: figure out what kind of university you want. Campus or city? Big or small? North, south, urban, rural? Russell Group or specialist? You don’t need a final shortlist yet.

Phase 2 — Shortlisting (Summer of Year 12, June to July)
Goal: visit your strong contenders to decide which five make your UCAS application. This is the most important phase. Most universities hold their biggest open days here.

Phase 3 — Applicant days (Autumn / Winter of Year 13)
Goal: deeper dives into universities that have made you offers. More subject-focused, smaller groups.

Phase 4 — Offer holder days (Spring of Year 13)
Goal: deciding between firm and insurance. Often the most useful single visit you’ll make.

Each phase has a different ideal number of visits.

Realistic numbers per phase

Phase 1 (Exploratory): 1 to 3 visits.
You’re not committing to anything. Often the most useful trips are nearby universities, just to compare a campus vs a city uni, or a small one vs a big one. Don’t travel far for these — you’re calibrating your taste, not picking a place.

Phase 2 (Shortlisting): 4 to 6 visits.
This is where most of your effort should go. You want to visit your top universities in person so your application is informed. A few key principles:

• Prioritise the ones you’re least sure about. Visiting your dream uni and falling more in love with it is pleasant but doesn’t really change your decision. Visiting a uni you weren’t sure about and discovering you love it (or hate it) is genuinely useful.
• Aim for variety — don’t visit five city-centre universities back to back. Mix campus and city, big and small.
• Try to keep some emotional energy for the last visit. Open day fatigue is real.

Phase 3 (Applicant days): 1 to 3 visits.
Optional, but useful for universities offering courses with unusual structure (joint honours, integrated master’s, year abroad). Skip the ones you’ve already seen extensively at open days unless there’s a specific reason to go back.

Phase 4 (Offer holder days): 1 to 2 visits.
Almost always worth going to your firm choice’s offer holder day if there is one. If you’re genuinely torn between firm and insurance, go to both.

Total across all four phases: typically 7 to 10 individual visits, including any repeat visits to the same university.

How many is too many?

You will start to lose your ability to distinguish between universities after about six visits in a short period. They all start to blur — same accommodation tour, same student union pizza, same mini-lecture in a lecture theatre that looks like every other lecture theatre.

A few signs you’re overdoing it:

• You can’t remember which uni had the good library and which had the good gym.
• Your notes from the last two visits are sparse.
• You’re saying yes to open days at universities you’re not seriously considering.
• You’re dreading the next train journey.

If any of those apply, stop and consolidate. Cut universities from your shortlist using research and virtual tours rather than another in-person visit.

How many is too few?

If you’re applying for five UCAS choices and you’ve only visited one in person, you’re probably under-visited. Some flexibility:

• It’s fine to apply to a couple of universities you haven’t seen, if you’ve done strong research and they’re not your most likely firm or insurance choices.
• It’s not fine for your firm choice to be a uni you’ve never set foot in. The risk of being unhappy after arrival is significantly higher.
• An insurance choice you’ve never visited is risky but defensible — by definition, you don’t expect to go there.

A reasonable floor: visit at least three of your five UCAS choices in person, including any university you’d seriously consider as your firm.

Planning by Gatsby Benchmark (for school teams)

For school careers staff supporting Year 12 cohorts, a sensible target is:

• Every student attends at least one Phase 1 exploratory open day (often arranged in groups by the school)
• Every student visits at least two universities they’re seriously considering in Phase 2
• Strong support for travel costs, particularly for students from lower-income families — many universities offer travel bursaries of £30 to £60

This sits cleanly within Gatsby Benchmark 7 (encounters with further and higher education).

Travel costs and the bursary trick

Many students don’t realise that universities will frequently reimburse open day travel, particularly for students from lower-income backgrounds or specific geographic areas. Always check the open day booking page — the bursary information is sometimes buried but it’s often there.

If you’re trying to stretch your budget across multiple visits:

• Group visits to nearby universities into a single trip. Manchester, Salford, Bolton are all within an hour of each other; same for Edinburgh and Glasgow; Birmingham and Aston; multiple London universities.
• Use 16-25 Railcards (16 to 17 year olds get one free in some regions).
• Some universities offer overnight stays for prospective students from far away — usually called “applicant visit” days or similar.

What about virtual open days?

A reasonable rule: virtual open days count as half a visit.

They’re useful for narrowing a longlist of 10 down to a shortlist of 6. They’re not enough for your firm and insurance choices. The “gut feel” of a place is impossible to replicate online — and that gut feel is the single biggest predictor of whether you’ll be happy there.

The minimum viable open day strategy

If you’re short on time, energy, or money, here’s the bare-bones version that still works:

1. One nearby open day in Phase 1 to calibrate.
2. Three visits in Phase 2 — your most plausible firm choice, one stretch option, and one safer option.
3. The offer holder day at whichever uni you’re closest to firming.

That’s five visits total, which is enough for an informed decision. More is better if you have the resources; less and you’re rolling the dice.

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