I hate that we can't just make university students like in Sims 2.

But you don't have to have them earn skills and work? Don't get me wrong, I like very much how 2 had a contained university. 3's, too, frankly. Much better than 4's integrated world. Last I checked, though, the development is unnecessary unless you are going for distinguished degrees, scholarships, etc. So extra on top of just the university experience.

The most I remember being required to wait is for the acceptance response. Beyond it not being that long, you can force enrollment with cheats in 4.

What I've started to do to manage this is to move my sim into dorms, and then use CAS to change all of the ugly townie roommates into sims I want in my game. Then I just leave them to go through university, and they'll graduate around the same time as my sim.
Once my sim graduates, I can go into manage households, turn on neighbourhood stories for them, and move them into my neighbourhoods. They'll have gained friends and enemies from uni, as well as skills - so they've developed a backstory without too much involvement from me.

Some of my sims have been to uni with no skills or scholarships. The only thing I dislike is having to wait after applying.

My university sim flunked her courses twice. She didn't even party that much either. In TS2, sims could work as baristas and have some fun parties and still pass courses. But I like the dorms, there's always food around.

With cheats and mods you actually can. I have started micromanage my sims to make sure they go to (and pass) uni. Enrollment is easy enough, the cheat requires no mods, just testingcheats on and a shift click to enroll (I do this with active sims as well as it cuts down on waiting time). That way you can make a bunch of young adults, move them into an empty lot and then enroll them all into uni and move them to dorms.

As I play with MCCC, I have notifications on for aging, and once every sim week enroll most new young adults this way (some I give jobs instead if I don't think uni is right for them).

With the All Cheats Mod you also have access to things like university.finish_term which I use to make sure all sims pass university. Now I wish this was something that could be included in game, but as it's not, it's the next best thing.

I use this page a lot for controlling my uni-students: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/expansionpacks/discoveruniversity/cheats.php

I loved having the Greek system and secret societies in sims 2.

I know we can make a Greek house and there’s a secret society in this game, but it’s not nearly as good.

I also loved how there were 3 choices of universities in sims 2, and they all had different maps.

Sims 3 and 4 has other strengths, but sims 2 university was so much more immersive than 3 or 4.

I wish University in Sims 4 allowed us to play a household of up to 8, even in the dorms like in Sims 2. I loved playing University and found it challenging playing more than one sim at a time. I was so excited when Sims 4 came out with University pack and was looking forward to it, until I realized you can only play one sims at a time. That was, and still is, very disappointing for me, as I loved sending a group of friends to college and letting them enjoy the experience together. It was where my singles often met the love their life, and they were all able to study together and help each other out. I really miss that in 4. I really want to be able to switch from sim to another in the group to help get them through college and be able to graduate together. I probably need to try it again, as I haven't played the university since my first try, but I will always be missing the Sims 2 version.

"maggiemae8135;c-18106938" wrote:
I wish University in Sims 4 allowed us to play a household of up to 8, even in the dorms like in Sims 2. I loved playing University and found it challenging playing more than one sim at a time. I was so excited when Sims 4 came out with University pack and was looking forward to it, until I realized you can only play one sims at a time. That was, and still is, very disappointing for me, as I loved sending a group of friends to college and letting them enjoy the experience together. It was where my singles often met the love their life, and they were all able to study together and help each other out. I really miss that in 4. I really want to be able to switch from sim to another in the group to help get them through college and be able to graduate together. I probably need to try it again, as I haven't played the university since my first try, but I will always be missing the Sims 2 version.

You can only enroll one sim at a time, but you can absolutely add up to 8 sims to a dorm. I make sure they’re all ready to go and keep exiting the dorm lot to add more until they’re all moved in. When you pick uni housing, you will see who is already living in a dorm.

"babajayne;c-18106955" wrote:

"maggiemae8135;c-18106938" wrote:
I wish University in Sims 4 allowed us to play a household of up to 8, even in the dorms like in Sims 2. I loved playing University and found it challenging playing more than one sim at a time. I was so excited when Sims 4 came out with University pack and was looking forward to it, until I realized you can only play one sims at a time. That was, and still is, very disappointing for me, as I loved sending a group of friends to college and letting them enjoy the experience together. It was where my singles often met the love their life, and they were all able to study together and help each other out. I really miss that in 4. I really want to be able to switch from sim to another in the group to help get them through college and be able to graduate together. I probably need to try it again, as I haven't played the university since my first try, but I will always be missing the Sims 2 version.

You can only enroll one sim at a time, but you can absolutely add up to 8 sims to a dorm. I make sure they’re all ready to go and keep exiting the dorm lot to add more until they’re all moved in. When you pick uni housing, you will see who is already living in a dorm.

You can have sims attend university from their home lot. So I think it should be possible to move all 8 sims into a house on campus and have everyone attend university if that is your wish. You can pretend their house is a dorm and hire a butler to take care of housekeeping.

You are guaranteed university admission. The skills etc are just if you want to gain admission to a distinguished degree.