Autism and Open days can be worrying as that autistic person has to go out of their comfort zone to go to a city and find themselves among many people their age, excited by the prospect of finally growing independent and leaving home. On the other hand, I didn’t find the number of people stressful when I went to visit a university for their open day.
To begin that day, we had to travel to the city where the university is located. Luckily, it is a city that I know well due to my frequent visits there as I was growing up. It also meant that if I attended that university, I wouldn’t have to live away from home. However, at first, we went to the wrong building!
There are two universities in that city, and the one we went to first didn’t have the course I wanted to, but they pointed us in the direction to the right university we wanted to see.
When we arrived at the university, we talked to the disability people, and they said that they would be able to support me throughout my three years at the university. We then walked to the library, and I felt comfortable doing it, even though it involves crossing a busy road.
The main problem I have encountered with the university was their creative writing course.
When we went into the talk, the people running the humanities building wanted us to get involved with things going on within the city which I am not so interested in, but the person doing the talk didn’t seem enthusiastic. To be a writer, you need enthusiasm. Unfortunately, this person didn’t sound excited when talking about the course. We also had to do group work at the end to make up our own story. I was in a group with several other girls, and I rarely had a chance to make my voice heard, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped.
What is my overall opinion on the Coventry University Open Day?
However, the open day helped to give me some experience as to what I want to do, and I decided that university isn’t the right course for me. Instead, I have decided to do a creative writing course with the University for Creative Arts, which has a distance learning course for creative writing. The course looks a lot better, and the people who run it seem very enthusiastic.
If you want to look at the courses available at the University for Creative Arts, the link is https://www.uca.ac.uk/
My opinion of university open days
Universities that hold open days allow students to get a feel for what life will be like there, which is useful for people with autism. It also allows us to discover the support in place with the course and if the student wants to live away from home. Overall, if you are thinking of going to university, you should go to an open day if you can to explore the campus and interview people so you can understand the course and student life.