I did edit both dorms out of live mode using the free build cheat (with no custom content). The new sims can select it when they apply but just not for a subsequent term.
I had the same issue and yes, obviously the ea builds work fine, but they’re horrendous. Why do we have the option to enable cheats and create our own lots if we can’t use them? mine had no mods either, I was in one of the foxbury towers and when I got kicked out to the other one and saw that there was no fridge I exited the household and gave up on that sim. i’m a builder so i’m very nitpicky about making things cute but seriously? no fridge? it’s just so weird
I used enablefreebuild cheat whilst the sims were living in the dorm, and without realising made the dorm fail the validation criteria by adding two stoves. When I corrected this problem, the lot was selectable again. It's possible this could be related to making the dorm invalid.
I ended up figuring out the issue months later, but forgot to update this bug report. I had initially used enablefreebuild to edit the dorm in another save, then placed the lot in the save I was playing in once my sims were at university.
For some reason, placing the lot in another save (or maybe cheating to editing it — but I haven’t had that issue with other edited dorms) caused it to set the housing option to Foxbury instead of Brichester. Once I selected Brichester housing in build mode, I’ve been able to play in the same dorm without moving out in that save with other sims.
