How should University work world wise?

I'd like to see an all-encompassing education pack or I'd like to see various levels of education covered if it is broken up into several GPs for some reasons. If there were a broad education pack covering everything from early childhood through high school and then onto university, that'd be interesting. I could see them breaking those into two packs though and I might be ok with that depending upon how it is done.

As for how I'd want to see university, I did play Sims 2. I'd like the ability to have several options for playable campuses. I also like the idea of the ability to have commuter school as an option but not as the sole focus. I like the idea of adults being able to take classes on nights and/or weekends.

I also like the idea of choosing how much to focus on a given sim. Honestly, I don't tend to spend tons of time on individual sims in my current style of play, so accommodations for rotational play would be interesting to me.

What could happen is that there are two options for a degree in Sims 4: full time and part time. For the part time option, the sims could live in their home world and the degree would work as a classic rabbit hole career. For the full time option, the sims would move to a new world and live in halls/dorms or fraternity/sorority house. This world could have entertainment, uni buildings and housing in different neighbourhoods but all basically be one unit. I don't know how the totally different styles of full vs part time would work though, but I assume it could be done.

"drake_mccarty;c-16590190" wrote:

"jackjack_k;c-16580909" wrote:

"@elelunicy;c-16580890" wrote:
The off-lot/public space needs to reflect that it’s a college campus, so option #2 makes very little sense. In fact, if rabbit hole academic buildings make a return (since both TS2 and TS3 use rabbit holes for classes) I’d expect them to be part of the world instead of being on a lot.

Option #1 is also a terrible idea. Commuter schools make sense in real life as some people only go to college for degrees. For a game it’s all about the fun part of being in college. Living in dorms and fraternity/sorority houses is a huge part of the traditional college experience and they are absolutely a must have.

I hear you, which is why I said they could still provide a hood or two for a new place to build Dorms, but they could also build Dorms in any world. So it would still work like Uni.

In the real world, most people live in housing accommodation providing by Universities outside of the actual University. I know of of several where I live and the Uni is on the other side of town.

That isn’t true, at least with regard to US universities. The majority of enrolled students are residential, which means they live on campus in university owned structures (dorms, apartments, in some cases houses, but that’s only for chartered fraternities/sororities).

Focusing on the commuter college experience really doesn’t do the whole college experience any justice at all, and it doesn’t translate into a fun experience for the player. I’d rather they keep it like they’ve done it in the past and have a dedicated university world (preferably several) where college students move to attend college. A rabbit hole school for commuter students could still be added, but I think in general it wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining.

Well, in europe it usually is totally the other way round.
Commuter universities are the norm and not the exception.
While there are students living in dormitories near the university, the majority travels to the university from outside
(which is why in many german universities, for example, the semester fee also includes a public transport fee for the public transport region of the cities around the city that has the university).

Therefore IMHO it would be a nice idea if a Sims 4 university would allow for both, gameplay of a commuter student as well as gameplay of someone living at the campus



What I especially want to see, however, is careers that only are available to people with university degrees ... or where, at least, the upper levels are reserved for people with university degrees (if the university EP is present).
Example:
If the university EP is present, the medical career would only let you rise till the highest nurse/paramedic rank.
If you wanted to rise further, to the level of physician (where you do the diagnostics alone and also do surgeries), you would first have to visit a university and successfully earned a degree in medicine

I picked option three, but then I thought that, now that we have seaons, it would be nice if students could come home for christmas.

"luthienrising;c-16582251" wrote:
I reaaaaaallly want Sims not to have to move to go to university, and I feel like Sims 4 is set up to make that possible. In real life, people may go to university and live and live at home to save money. They may go to university later in life when they have their own family (<-- it me, next winter, if all goes well!). I've always been annoyed in previous university packs that the university experience was limited to living in a dorm or frat/sorority house. The option I picked felt the closest to what I want: A "university" town that my Sims might live in but could attend university while living in a different world too.

It's not realistic to expect a married student to spend all the time at University by himself/herself; with a University type world you could bring your spouse and children and they can go to their work/school from there. Or you can commute to campus; it could be similar to the GTW careers where you can either follow your Sim to campus or send him/her alone if you want to focus on another member of the family.

I agree that with the way Sims 4 is set up, you can have "commuter" students who doh't live on campus. Another idea might be having two-year "certificate" programs, maybe for students who've already completed a degree so have all the general education under their belt. So you'd need a certain number of units to graduate the first time through, but maybe half as many units for subsequent visits (say your Sim went into Athletics but decides to return for Education to be a PE teacher after they're too old to play their sport).

I'd also like to add alternative learning processes: online learning, study from home (similar to the work from home careers from CL and now the new gardening career in Seasons), perhaps improvement in high school and elementary school educations with the return of private schools (shorter school day but more intensive homework), homeschool options like the "study from home", and an active day care career to care for toddlers.

"Proteus42;c-16590284" wrote:

What I especially want to see, however, is careers that only are available to people with university degrees ... or where, at least, the upper levels are reserved for people with university degrees (if the university EP is present).
Example:
If the university EP is present, the medical career would only let you rise till the highest nurse/paramedic rank.
If you wanted to rise further, to the level of physician (where you do the diagnostics alone and also do surgeries), you would first have to visit a university and successfully earned a degree in medicine

I want to see jobs/careers exclusive to Sims with university degrees as well. Unfortunately the doctor's career will probably stay the way it is as it came a long time ago with a different expansion.

"Movotti;c-16582558" wrote:
The concept of having to live on campus is very strange and unrealistic to me.

I'd like to see an education pack that operates in a similar manner to Get to Work. Your sims attend their classes, and then they go home. It could operate slightly differently to GTW, in that it could include an education world, a town or suburb that has a primary school, a secondary school, a hands-on tertiary education facility, and a university. Perhaps it could have a lot containing a dorm, operating similar to CL apartments, but your sims shouldn't be required to live in the education world.

"elelunicy;c-16580993" wrote:
Where I’m from it’s very common for schools to require all underclassmen, or at least freshmen to live on campus.

It's very unusual to live in a dorm in Australia, unless you're an international or first year rural student.
Almost all students live at home, or in share houses, off campus.

Some small liberal arts colleges literally require everyone to live on campus

That is such a strange concept. Whats wrong with living at home, sleeping in your own bed, and not having to pay for an uncomfortable bed, in a strange place?

Schools with little to no on-campus housing are known as commuter schools and they’re typically far less prestigious.

They're standard for Australia. No lack of prestige here.

"jackjack_k;c-16580909" wrote:
In the real world, most people live in housing accommodation providing by Universities outside of the actual University. I know of of several where I live and the Uni is on the other side of town.

Some unis here own houses that they lease to students as student housing. Share housing is a better way for students to learn to live in the real world, dorms are terrible for it.

Some universities do require freshmen (first year) to live in on-campus housing if they're not commuting from home, just to make sure they can adjust to college life witho (ut the pressures of coming up with monthly rent/food/utilities (that's included in the room/board fees paid at the beginning of each semester).

No lack of prestige for "commuter schools" here aw well -- we have a major state university in the town where I live that has a large commuter population in addition to the students that live on or adjacent to campus. Many older students return to university to gain new skills for a changing workforce (especially in the tech field). We also have "community colleges" which are 2-year programs; many students attend because they're not sure what they want for their major field of study and they get a chance to try out different classes to find their interests, or they plan to go to a university but by getting their general education at community college they can save quite a bit of money.

"Movotti;c-16582558" wrote:

Some small liberal arts colleges literally require everyone to live on campus

That is such a strange concept. Whats wrong with living at home, sleeping in your own bed, and not having to pay for an uncomfortable bed, in a strange place?

Nothing wrong with that, but I think what's interesting about how the US handles it is: students transition to adults, having to socialize and network, and have some more responsibility from living alone and having to take care of yourself. I like the idea of separating from the family, it shakes up the gameplay, you furnish a home/dorm again. I think it's a lot more fun as a college experience than just going to class everyday and then going back home like you're still in school.

I would like to edit the world and maybe rebuild some buildings. Also i would like it to be a seperate world to have the university feeling of moving to an other country.

"Eliharb;c-16590851" wrote:

"Movotti;c-16582558" wrote:

Some small liberal arts colleges literally require everyone to live on campus

That is such a strange concept. Whats wrong with living at home, sleeping in your own bed, and not having to pay for an uncomfortable bed, in a strange place?

Nothing wrong with that, but I think what's interesting about how the US handles it is: students transition to adults, having to socialize and network, and have some more responsibility from living alone and having to take care of yourself. I like the idea of separating from the family, it shakes up the gameplay, you furnish a home/dorm again. I think it's a lot more fun as a college experience than just going to class everyday and then going back home like you're still in school.

Exactly. Whether it's a college dorm or a rented, shared apartment, it's where you take your first steps as an adult. I think previous university EPs conveyed that very well. I do think there needs to be an option for those who don't want to go to campus though. There was something called community college mod for TS3, where you could place an one-building university complex in your played town and have your sims attend it like a school, which allowed them to still live at home and I loved that to switch things up from time to time. Would be great if TS4 had an option like that although I wouldn't hold my breath.