Please bear in mind that I graduated over ten years ago.
Positives of Studying Sport Science at Loughborough University
- Amazing university; with unbelievable facilities.
- The university is one of the best in the country
- The work ethic of the students is unbelievable
- The Sport Science staff boast some of the leading experts in the country
- Loughborough has the best reputation in the country for Sport Science
- Best sports facilities anywhere in the UK (arguably)
- You can study Sport Science & Maths or Sport Science & Geography etc. rather than just Sport Science
- The campus is immense. You don’t really need to go off campus for anything
- There are several gyms, all top-notch with good instructors.
Negatives of Studying Sport Science at Loughborough
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- For me, it was like a poisoned chalice when it came to getting a job. I had a first from Loughborough, I couldn’t get a job within the sport science industry and nobody would give me a chance at a job in enough industry due to being overqualified.
- Other graduates struggled to get a job in the industry, especially if they didn’t have a network within a sport’s organisation. My friend from Stoke on the same course is a car salesman now, my friend from London is a photographer, my other friend from London is a teacher at a public school
- The Personal Training industry is hard to break into due to the number of qualified PTs. The barrier-to-entry isn’t there anymore due to all the courses you can do in months or even days
- Some lecturers were hard/near impossible to contact
- Unforgivingly elitist at times. For example, I vividly recall my marathon runner friend being taunted brutally by the coach teaching us shot put. Love to see him run a marathon!
- Expensive, to the point of being a rip off at times. I didn’t go to the fresher or the graduation ball due to the expense – graduation ball was over £100 if I remember rightly. Also, each lecturer had their own book published and that was always the module text book – usually costing about £30 a pop.
Before studying Sport Science at any university I would just advice people to have some kind of a plan, and a contingency plan when it comes to getting a job at the end of your studies.
Post-Graduate depression is a real problem that nobody seems to want to talk about.
Most universities just want your tuition fees and aren’t too fussed about what happens to you after graduation. It’s not their responsibility either; it’s yours – look at the job market and research career prospects before committing to any degree.
On the plus side, a Sport Science degree from Loughborough will always command respect within the sport’s industry. If you can’t get a job with your Sport Science degree, use it to do a post-graduate qualification in something else.
For example, I had a degree in Sport Science and an MSc in Nutrition, and couldn’t get a job – so I did a post graduate diploma (distance learning) in Digital Marketing; and managed to get a good job within a few weeks.
Experience is essential when applying for any job, if you want to work in the sports-sector, do some voluntary work and/or start your own business. For example, you could give pre-season nutrition talks to lower-league clubs for free, just to build up your CV.
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To summarise, it’s an excellent university and nationally renown, if not world-renown for the calibre of Sport Science graduates it produces each year. Just don’t be too disheartened if you can’t get a job straight away; the Sport Science industry is tricky to enter into if you don’t already had a foot in the proverbial door.
I wrote about my post-graduate job hunt here on Careerfuel.net
I also wrote about my issues with ‘post graduate’ depression on my blog here
Did I mention Loughborough is awesome for sport?
