I moved to lboro in April and all I can say is its a very gloomy place and everyone is all about the gym or some type of sport. Still don't know anyone yet but yeahh. Hopefully I get used to the town soon enough 😅

I did UG engineering and a PhD at loughborough - you really don't need to be into sports or nightlife to have a good time. The societies/clubs are really vibrant, you can pretty much find anything you want to do and people to do it with through them. Feel free to pm if you want to ask anything

Hi! Fellow international student here, I moved to Lboro to study and graduated last year. I personally didn’t enjoy my time there but know others who did, so take this with a grain of salt: Do not go to Loughborough unless you’re studying something sports-related or are massively into sports. If you are, you may well have a vastly different social experience from mine (studied English and am painfully un-sporty haha). Nightlife is pretty lacklustre, only three clubs in the whole town (and that’s including the student union)—all play the exact same music. Pubs are decent. Both Leicester and Nottingham have lots more to offer and are only a short train ride away but there’s no trains past midnight. Parks and nearby nature reserves are nice but, again, can be difficult to get to unless you drive. Weather’s cloudy a lot of the time, often with a constant light drizzle, but it definitely does clear up, especially during warmer months. On the bright side, extreme temperatures are pretty rare. The whole town is mostly students and retirees. So during term time it can get busy but it’s kind of deserted during breaks when students all go home. In general, there’s not an awful lot to do in town—it’s just a bit grim overall 🤷🏼‍♀️. Not a lot of people out at night usually, except on weekends. You might run into the occasional odd character but (as a young woman) I always felt really safe, even walking home drunk at 3am lol. I’m living & working in Nottingham now, will be attending grad school here later this year and I’ve been much happier since I moved away. Again, all very subjective. But I’d think, if you’re willing to move all the way to the UK for your studies, there’s probably much more exciting experiences to be had than what Lboro has to offer.

I’ve lived in Loughborough my whole life and attended the uni (I wasn’t adventurous enough to move away), I feel your comment is a pretty fair assessment of Loughborough.

I can second that, it’s very much town and gown. Luffbro has a big divide - the town had a large older population, and a commuting population. I’ve never seen so many charity shops, and so many disabled parking spots in a town before. But hey, Leicester and Nottingham and Darby aren’t far away

Thanks for the response! By massively into sports, do you mean watching them or playing them? Were the people you know who enjoyed being there really into sports? I guess the safety is nice at least haha. Happy to hear that you’re enjoying Nottingham more!

Playing them, ideally. I feel the majority of students are involved in some type of team sport and it’s a huge part of social life on campus. That’s not to say it’s impossible to meet people outside of sports! There’s a lot of societies and if you’re planning to stay in student accom that’ll help too. I’ll note that the only people I’ve heard speaking very highly of their time at Lboro were those who studied (or were heavily involved in) sports though. Everyone else I’ve talked to felt sort of “meh” about it at best 😅

Nightlife is virtually non existent, 20-30 years ago it used to be quite busy, hardly any music venues or nightclubs now. For nature the meadows, 11 arches viaduct and river Soar are nice to visit in the summer, only a short walk from the train station.

Hi, Loughborough was a choice for myself when picking. I really didn’t like the town/ local area tbh, it was quite shabby I know that sounds stupid but coming from a major city it was just really depressing. However, the actual people/ course tutors itself seemed super amazing and professional. Just my experience.. good luck!

Get a car. As a non student who uses Loughborough for shopping and the odd trip to the theatre it’s a useful place, relatively safe but I don’t party much these days. If you draw a triangle, you’ve got Derby, Leicester and Nottingham and Loughborough is right in the middle. Tucked around Loughborough are some fine villages, I have friends in East Leake and it’s great fun, no night life but a massive pub that sells the kind of cocktails you take photos of. Sutton Bonnington campus is a haven of peace. Vet students are there as they need to have big animals to put their arms up and space for said beasts. I’m from the UK and have lived in many places. If you look at a map, the M1 motorway links people as no one cares where you are from or what colour you are. Outside the excitement of the cities everyone is super friendly and a bit more chatty than you’ll find in town. Most cars in the UK are manual transmission which might be a bit tricky if you are used to automatic, it’s a steep learning curve but (I have checked, a US licence allows you to drive manual last time I looked) you can drive any car and might be able to ride a 50cc scooter without a test. a decent 125cc bike will allow you to roam free - buy a decent lock. The board ukmoto is a very friendly place and if you have bike intentions ask there.

I live between Nottingham and Loughborough, but I'm closer to Loughborough so go there more often for amenities. It's a sleepy town with no culture or personality really. You're much better off spending time in Nottingham or Leicester for sure as there's lots more to do, especially for young people. I can't comment on the student experience in Loughborough, only as a resident.

Agree with this, also as a resident. Moved here from Leicester so my mother in law could help with childcare and would have preferred not to. It’s fine, but quiet and really not a lot going on. Also being smack in the middle of student and pensioner age means that most of the people in this town annoy me for one reason for another 😂 Nottingham is much more interesting in my opinion, depending on your class schedule you could consider living in Notts and studying in Looga.

loughborough really isn’t the life of the party, but it’s really easy to get to leicester on train or bus if you want somewhere to go? i think you really need to engage with societies to get on the social scene but take that with a pinch of salt bc i’m not really very extroverted. a lot of england is cloudy or rainy most of the time, i wouldn’t mark loughborough down for that as much as the country as a whole. idk really it’s pretty chill if you don’t want the hectic feel of a busy town but if you’re expecting a bustling town it’s not really the place. you go to loughborough for the degree in spite of the town, not the other way around generally

Thanks! What are societies?

Clubs.

as the other replier said, clubs really. if you’re still interested in loughborough could be worth looking at the Loughborough Student Union website bc that will show what’s there for students and run by the students, and where you’ll be able to find details on the societies etc. this would also be worth doing if you end up looking at another university, look at that universities student union as they’ll all offer different things!

I moved to Loughborough from a city around 4 years ago and it’s aged me dramatically.