Anyone any experience of Loughborough?

[Puffypuffin]

Went to open day yesterday with DD and she (and I) was pretty impressed. She was set on UEA or Warwick and Loughborough was a bit of a last minute visits but she's definitely interested. Anyone have a YP there?

We went to the open day yesterday too and DD also loved it .. surprised me by it nudging Nottingham off the top spot for her

NC for this as has personal info.
One of my DCs is starting at Loughborough this year to study Engineering and is in David Collett.

My DC like yours, has a disability affecting mobility that requires no stairs/steps to their room, a double bed, en-suite, catered and close to classes. At my DC’s request, their consultant wrote a letter for them to send to Loughborough outlining these requirements and why they were necessary due to the physical and mobility limitations of their disability.

Loughborough has a system where students with disabilities are invited to apply for accommodation before everyone else. So there is no competition for rooms.

My DC applied for David Collet as it is right next door to the Engineering building and got a room meeting all the requirements.

As your DD has a disability, you should be able to follow the same process.

That's so helpful @RedMayaQueen , thank you so much. I hope your daughter has a fantastic time.

Ok well from a quick search both those halls have en suite for some rooms; en suite rooms are usually popular, tho I gather catered less so, so you may be lucky.

en suite room in Faraday with 15 meals a week (three meals a day on weekdays) is about £8.5k which is tippytop IMO - leaves about £1k all year for everything else inc weekend food, going out, clubs, clothes, books (haha) - ie about £25 pw (40 weeks). Similar room in DC is about £7,7k but does not include weekday lunch or any weekend food. You'll have a lot more money to play with in a SC room.

In terms of the process, unless they have changed it, when you get your results and confirm your place, you get a link to the portal and have to log on and say what room you would like. DS messed it up (cannot recall detail now) so was allocated a room somewhat at random - but he accepted it and then was easily able to swap to his desired hall Falk Egginton (cheap, lively). so altho it seemed stressful at the time it worked out Ok. You do need to be on it on the day tho.

doh I missed that message about disability allocation - yes that's great sounds much better @Puffypuffin

I work in HE (in London) and know a few academic and support staff at Loughborough. Relatives also live a few miles away, and I've spent time in the town.

The University has put a LOT of effort in providing a good student experience, is very good in several subjects other than sport, and hangs out high in the league tables. I'm sure it's a good choice if it's a good fit for your child.

The town is small and down to earth (has a great steam railway!) and has plenty of shops etc. Nothing poncy about it, presumably it's as safe as anywhere. I've always found it very friendly. Excellent pizza at Peter Pizzeria.

Good luck to yours! Mine goes up on Tuesday as that is move in day for David Collett. I wish I had more info, but she is busy packing like mad right now so no info yet on how freshers or campus life is.

Both my DS went to Loughborough, 1 graduated and working, 1 going into final year.

sports - lots of choice & to be in elite teams you are nearly international standard. But a lot of ‘normal’ people play in IMS teams which is the interhall and non bucas. Both mine played ims rugby & football & loved it.

social life - town is a bit of a dump! Lots of nightlife in Nottingham or union & lots of student parties.

halls - each hall has a committee who organise lots of activities and people stay affiliated to the hall even after moving out in 2nd & 3rd and play for the hall on ims teams.

I had 1 in David Collett - food ok, lots of engineers as that end of the Uni.

other in Telford, he made a lot of friends from all degrees, very social & sporty halls & the cheapest as shared bathroom.

houses - lots live in student triangle - area between Uni & town - rows of typical terraced houses. Rent about 500 a month for room ina shared house. I’m now in 4th year of housing & had 1 burglary as a kitchen window left open & laptop left in kitchen 🙄 Lots of house parties.

there is a recent new VC who DS complains is moving Uni away from partying and cutting back on freshers and union activities. The old vc was very visible and well liked the new one is very different.

I would also say there is not great mental health support, DS had a big problem 2nd year after lock down & Uni was very much read this and sort yourself out.

I would absolutely recommend Loughborough. I went 20 years ago and loved it and dropped ds back last week for his second year.

Housing is easy, most choose to live out in 2nd year but there is an option to go back into halls (I've never heard of anyone commuting).

The town is busy when the students are there with plenty of nightlife going on into the (not so) early hours but for first years, most of it is based around the Student Union. They also train/Uber into Nottingham fairly frequently when they want something different. It's a great place!

Can't comment on the uni but I've spent many a day walking around the town whilst ds does sports training there. (He's not at uni but is elite level sport so we are opposite!)

Town has lots of shops (very much your typical high street ones and being a uni town the centre hasn't died) and some lovely cafes. It gets really busy ime but I felt safe there walking around alone. There are lots of students about all the time and plenty of agents with housing near the uni so shouldn't be too much trouble finding accommodation once outside of halls.

There were also lots of buses running into the uni and college next door so transport doesn't seem an issue either.

Friends dd is looking at it for next year and lived open day yesterday too!

I live near Loughborough, and know the town well. It’s a perfectly nice, safe town, but it’s not exactly the centre of the universe, so from a student POV you have both the benefits & drawbacks of not studying in a big, vibrant city.

It has a decent town centre with the normal shops & chain eateries (Boots, Primark, Poundland, Costa, McD’s, Nando’s, Pizza Express, KFC, Subway etc etc), all walkable from the university campus. Supermarkets within walking distance of campus are Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Tesco x2 & a small M&S. The market, on Thursdays & Saturdays is excellent. There are 2 cinemas, one modern & shiny, one less so.

There are a lot of Chines & East Asian students at the uni, who are catered for by plenty of authentic restaurants & food shops. Nightlife isn’t great, so it’s a trip into Leicester or Nottingham for a big night out. The station isn’t in the town centre, it’s the opposite side of town to campus which isn’t ideal.
The town is close to an area of scenic, hilly countryside known as ‘Charnwood Forest’ which is a magnet for runners & cyclists.
Happy to try to answer any other questions you may have about the town.

Thank you so much @Libertass . DD not a massive party animal but I think she'll enjoy the student union.

Hi
My daughter has just started her second year at LBoro and absolutely loves it (she is studying Criminology). Facilities are amazing and it’s a great campus with a brilliant Student Union. She said it just felt right when she looked round and she loves that it is a campus as it feels safe. LBoro itself has plenty of social life and Nottingham is just 20 mins train ride away.
good luck with her decision!

I've just come across this thread - seems like nothing has changed since 40 years ago except the cost of going there!
The halls were all fully catered except FalkEgg (which was not for freshers) though you could opt out of any 2 of weekends/breakfast/lunch after the first term. No rooms were en-suite, some rooms had a private bedroom and communal work area (between 2). Some rooms had a sink, there were TV rooms (1 or 2) and a common room per hall.
Some halls had several baths in a row with partitions & locked doors for privacy, but you could throw things over the partition to the next bather! David Collett was for postgrads only.
You couldn't chose your hall either, it was by random allocation to make sure there was an even distribution of courses amongst all the halls. And rooms were cleaned every other day, with clean bedding once a week, nobody had a duvet - they were just becoming popular, we just had sheets & blankets.

£295 per term. A room in the student area of town was £10/£12 pw

DS loves Loughborough Uni. He's in 2nd year in catered (5d pw) ensuite which leaves about £160pm of the full maintenance loan left for socialising and weekend food. Off campus accommodation is plentiful and cheap too. He is heavily involved in nerdy non sporting societies and has a great time on campus and in selected pubs in town. Great uni IMO.

I live in leicester and had to go to Loughborough over the summer for work. I was shocked at how dismal it was. It made Leicester look like a fabulous, vibrant, cultural and social hotspot by comparison- and Leicester is a very ordinary small city....
Obviously most students would not be in residence during the summer but the town looked dead, down at heel and quite rough. I wondered where the income from Loughborough's 18000 students went. Where do they spend their money? Where do they have fun? Not many bars, cafes etc. Small versions of some high street names but lots of charity shops and vacant shops.
Lovely "Bitches" graffiti, derelict houses whilst walking from the train station to the town centre.
Hopefully the campus has loads and loads of facilities (not just sporting) but I couldn't live there.

Between the station and the town centre is the oldest part of town, mostly Victorian terraces. I don't know about now, but the town was always dead in summer because of students being such a large percentage of the population.

Lufbra town was always boring and a bit manky (talking 35 years ago). We only visited for very occasional meals out, very infrequent trips to the so-called nightclub or the fleapit cinema - normally we went to Nottingham for films.
Social life revolved around Hall. One social evening every week, mostly themed parties, plus films on a Sunday. And the Union every Friday night. Add on any particular sports or special interest groups you belonged to plus quieter nights in the on-campus pub - well, we had plenty to do.
If it's still like that (is it?) then there is no need to go into Lufbra.