Murdoch Open Day 2010 - Review
It can sometimes be hard to write this blog. As I've mentioned in previous posts and I have clearly outlined, or at least I hope I have, in the disclaimer Murdoch does officially endorse the blog and compensate me for certain posts. This doesn't mean that I am going to necessarily always be positive about them and Murdoch have stressed to me that they will not attempt to censor me. With that said I will now discuss my opinions on the Murdoch Open Day on August 22nd.
When I was 17, all those years ago, I was given the day off College to attend the Sussex University Open Day. It was pretty cool being given a day off to wander around a campus for a couple of hours and I had made plans to meet some friends in Brighton afterwards. I hadn't given any thought to University at that stage so I was thoroughly unprepared for what to expect. I had no idea what major I wanted to pursue and next to no clue if I was even going to be living in England for University. As you can imagine this made the whole open day experience less than pointless as all I did was walk around with a group of friends and complain, if I remember correctly, about how boring the whole process was. In short I was immature, annoying and completely unprepared to even think about University.
Murdoch's open day, compared to the rather subdued Sussex one, was more like attending a carnival or festival. There were tea-cup rides, face-painting, competitions and a fairly impressive band line-up. If anything it seemed like there was so much to see and do that the prospective students didn't really have a reason to engage with the lecturers which is the whole point of an Open Day. Luckily the people attending this event seemed to be a bit more mature than I was on my first Open Day and I saw a lot of lecturers being asked questions and a lot of information being given out. All in all Murdoch gets points for being very informative and that's really what these days are about.
The razor in the candy-floss though is that all the attractions kind of distort what a typical day on campus is actually like. There aren't always tea-cup rides and petting zoos on campus, we seldom get bands performing live on Bush Court and you'll be lucky to get churros on any day other than the Open Day. I know the attractions are fun and only meant to be a diversion and I am not saying Murdoch put them on for any other reason, but if Sussex had a similar show I'd likely have tried harder to get a place there and perhaps regretted it as I would have missed out on my Australian experience.
The reality of campus life is that most of the time you won't be able to simply lounge around on Bush Court and enjoy the sun. You have work to do, often a lot of work, and when you're out on Bush Court its likely that it will be to read something for an upcoming tutorial or to do a last-minute bit of studying. Sometimes the Guild will put on an anti-stress day and it can be fun to visit the petting zoo or get a free drumming lesson but like I have said, these days are few and far between.
So in my own roundabout way I am telling you that you shouldn't base your decision solely off the Open Day. Universities will use them to put on their best face, and who can blame them? If you choose Murdoch simply because 'it had the best attractions' or 'was the most fun' then all I can do is caution you to re-think. If you came to the conclusion that Murdoch is the University for you through research and backed that up by attending the Open Day and talking to the relevant Unit and Degree Co-ordinators then I think you've got the point and are a very different person to me when I attended my first open day.
4 comments:
I agree.
I went with my brother and sister, and some of their friends, so they could get an idea of university life at Murdoch.
While it was fun, they were more interested in riding tea-cups than seeing where they would be having their classes, or getting advice and information about potential degrees.
Those are fair points, I understand that the day is designed to produce a positive and lasting impression in the minds of prospective students but at the same time I wish they would reach for a more academically serious image.
Too many times I feel that Murdoch is almost afraid of appearing like a serious intellectual image and instead tries for something fluffy and accessible instead, to the detriment of the institution in my opinion.
I totally get what you guys are saying. But for me, it comes down to the individual student. It's my life and at the end of the day it's my responsibility to seek out the information I need to make the big decision.
I was checking out the media area and had a look around and chat with staff, students there...then once that was done I checked out a few bands. So I guess in my opinion it was the best of both worlds. A day out plus some serious info?
Jen - Yeah I can't really say I blame them as I would have been exactly the same a few years back. Back then though I blame not being challenged to engage with my lecturers whereas with Murdoch I feel there was so many distractions that I could have spent all the Open Day seeing them all.
Cal - I can see your point and I feel it is a developing trend, or so I've noticed. I guess it has a lot to do with trying to reach a broader range of people? But by diluting your message down so that it can reach that broader market you'd really diffuse its impact. I hope that makes sense.
Anon - I completely agree, the only person responsible for your learning at University is you and I think I said similar such words in a previous post. I feel though that not enough emphasis was placed on engaging or challenging the prospective students or on an intellectual level, perhaps though as I am no longer a prospective student I missed something. I am glad you took the initiative however and, seemed to, have benefitted.
Post a Comment