Uni starters 2024

[radiator2]

The countdown is on. Uni move in has started for some unis and is right around the corner for others. How are we all feeling? Wishing the best of luck to all freshers!

Is it a 3 or 4 year course? Do many first years get spots? Are there any other sports related options he can do to supplement his course that would help with degree even if not competitive? For example, volunteer support, coaching in community etc?
I totally get how disappointed he must be when he has put his heart and soul in getting to Loughborough.

I had heard that teams at Loughborough were so competitive but that's so tough. Is he enjoying the course or made any friends?

A consideration is to try a new sport at Uni and join a local cycling team. I know it's not what he wanted but he might need to consider what he can do enjoy the 3 years.

Hopefully things will click. It’s still very early days. I suppose with somewhere like Loughborough with lots of sporty kids the standard for competitive teams is very high and not everyone can get a place. There seem to be social teams including a social football league maybe that would be worth a try.

So sorry he’s had such a bad experience. Could he dm the society on instagram or contact them to explain and see if he could still try out? Might be worth a try. Hope things start to get better for him. It’s shit knowing your DC is unhappy especially when there’s very little you can do to help. Remember it is still early days, I’m sure his tribe will come.

Sorry just read and seen he’s already tried that. Nothing really to add, just hope things start to look up. When sending DD of I was told to expect her to hate it until Christmas. I think there’s a huge expectation for them to love it and unfortunately so many of our kids don’t find it as easy. Fingers crossed it only goes up from here.

Has he got a reading week? Maybe a bit of tlc at home would be in order.

I thought I recognised your username from posts last year and your son trying to get into Loughborough. Sorry to hear he is not happy there after all the stress of trying to get in. I hope things improve for him.

Is there a parents of Loughborough uni Facebook group @mrsconradfisher they might have uni specific info about other football or cycling opportunities.

Thank you, @radiator2 ! I love doing a food shop for DD - you see their little face light up when you let them put in the trolley some overpriced item that they normally can't afford, don't you?

@mrsconradfisher , I'm so sorry to hear this. It sounds really frustrating, especially given the background you've mentioned, but try to encourage him not to make decisions too close to the heat of the moment. I can imagine how disappointed he is.

From my tiny experience of universities in this day and age, it seems that they talk a great game, and are marketed very well, but when you look at them close up, some of them seem less organised and more inflexible than you'd been led to believe.

@mrsconradfisher If there’s a good cycle shop in the area they might know of local clubs?

No reading week unfortunately. I’m popping up in half term (I work in a school) but he has lectures every day for most of the day so it will be a quick visit.

Yes there is a FB page, I am on it. Football is AU football where there are 9/10 teams for the whole Uni. He didn’t even bother trialling for that as knew that was aiming too high. Trialled for the halls team for his hall and there were over 200 boys for 20 places.

He can’t even hire a 5 a side pitch for a kick as they go within seconds of being released.

They do social cycling which he has been doing and they have been really lovely and supportive. They suggested that he was good enough to trial for the development squad but he had to do the trial (which he obviously didn’t manage). He’s going to email again and see if there is any way of him getting another trial.
He knew it would be hard as so so many of the students are sporty there but didn’t quite imagine it to be this difficult, that combined with everything else is not a good combination.
All I’ve done is worry since he’s been gone, want him out partying and socialising. He’s been in his room working most of the time.

That’s a good idea actually. I think the idea was a Uni team so he could try to make some Uni friends but tbh at the moment I just want him to do something.

Another option, if he likes swimming and running as well, could be a local Tri team?

https://www.lboro.ac.uk/sport/sports/football/mens/social-sport/
Is this any good? Sign up date gone for semester 1 but maybe try and suggest a team for semester 2. It sounds like 180 lads in his halls alone who didn’t make team so probably easy to get a group together.

He loves running but swimming is definitely not his sport…it’s a bit of a family joke! He definitely did not get the ability to swim gene.

Randomly his girlfriend is a swimming teacher and even she has given up trying to teach him.

Duathlon it is then!

Ohh thank you…that’s not something he has seen I don’t think. That could definitely work, will send it to him.

He was trying to book the pitches available for recreational sport but they go “live” at a certain time and are just gone immediately.

Is that actually a thing? He only started cycling a year ago so it’s a whole new world.

I joked the other day that he could do a triathlon without the swimming but didn’t realise he actually could!

Duathlon is definitely A Thing. It’s run by British Triathlon.

Definitely a thing. They were going to turn the Triathlon at the Olympics this summer into a Duathlon if the Seine pollution levels hadn't dropped sufficiently.

I felt like I hadn't heard from DD for a while so sent a What's App just saying "Doing OK".

She replied with a photo of herself and a friend taken in the student bar!

As DP said "well, it's good she's not stuck in her room" 😂

We had this same thing on Saturday. Sent the same message, got the same kind of photo back. My DD and her flat mate taken from the club!! 😂I had to smile. How much more proof do you need? 😁

First visit to dd this weekend. She is still wobbly with her course, flatmates and uni life. Will be able to gauge better to what extent it is tough when I see her. Not the start to uni life she (or we) imagined. Let’s see if she makes it to Christmas, I just want her happy but not to give up at her first exposure to life not on her terms !

That's great news to those of you receiving happy pics! 😊

Good luck this weekend, @Buzzyfeeder. Us old folk know that 6 or 7 weeks can still be nowhere near enough to gauge how something will eventually turn out, but it's true we don't want them to suffer, and that length of time can seem a lifetime to them.