Sims are not accepted in any of the universities. However, they can still enroll.

@jpsulsuldagdag One thing I just thought of which can boost your Sims' chance of getting accepted for distinguished degrees, if you ever have it come up where you are concerned about it and really want the sim to get a distinguished degree, is if you have the parents in the played household, they can use their phone to give a boost to the chances.

Sims who are famous can use their fame to give a child a boosted chance and sims who are alumni can use their alumni status to boost a child's chance. There may be other parameters which also give the phone options but those are the two I can remember off the top of my head. You can find the options on the cell phone menu of the parent/gaurdian Sims under the 'career' section.

Also, not related at all to Distinguished degrees, but is something I didn't figure out until I'd played several Sims through University is that you can apply for scholarships again after a Sim has already been at Uni for a while. So if you re-apply each term for scholarships, as their skills increase while attending, you could get more scholarships than you originally started with.

I had some students taking the first 1 or 2 terms, then apply for the distinguished university and switch (if granted). I can't say for sure if they got the exact same result as if they took all terms at the preferred university, but I think it worked well. I also think it's better to switch early, not sure if it would affect anything.

Why this works (some times) is that the sim builds skills during the first term and on. Better skills gives a higher chance to get accepted. Especially sims that comes directly from cas will face problems getting accepted by the distinguished university, because of low skills.

That's actually brilliant, @Simmerville.
While I figured out that I could apply for more scholarships while in the middle of a degree program, I never thought to try actually switching universities like that...I never realized it was even an option. I assumed you'd lose any progress you had already made in terms of number of courses.

I had no idea you could apply again for scholarships. I'll have to do that next time. I've never had to use student loan though. Some household savings and a few scholarships at the start always seems to cover it. I kind of wish it was a little more challenging to get scholarships. Maybe I should have one Sim not apply and keep her living off ramen noodles and working part time. Haven't really played a struggling student yet.

Thanks @

"Stormkeep;c-18064458" wrote:
@jpsulsuldagdag One thing I just thought of which can boost your Sims' chance of getting accepted for distinguished degrees, if you ever have it come up where you are concerned about it and really want the sim to get a distinguished degree, is if you have the parents in the played household, they can use their phone to give a boost to the chances.

Sims who are famous can use their fame to give a child a boosted chance and sims who are alumni can use their alumni status to boost a child's chance. There may be other parameters which also give the phone options but those are the two I can remember off the top of my head. You can find the options on the cell phone menu of the parent/gaurdian Sims under the 'career' section.

Also, not related at all to Distinguished degrees, but is something I didn't figure out until I'd played several Sims through University is that you can apply for scholarships again after a Sim has already been at Uni for a while. So if you re-apply each term for scholarships, as their skills increase while attending, you could get more scholarships than you originally started with.

thanks. I don't have Get Famous though but I'll try that parents thing next time.

"EgonVM;c-18064330" wrote:

"Stormkeep;c-18063775" wrote:

"EgonVM;c-18063767" wrote:
, but if your sim graduates with honors (GPA A+), the benefits will be the same as distinguished without honors.

That actually depends on which career you go into. For some careers graduation with a regular degree with honors start 1 career level lower than distinguished without honors. For some it even is the same career level start regardless of degree type and/or honor status. This page details them all.

You also lose out on the potential to earn the distinguished degree scholarships, so that's an additional downside.

Ah yes, of course. I forgot the scholarship sims will automatically get. Extra money for each distinguished degree qualification isn't bad, eh?

About careers, yes it is different. However, I have noticed a pattern. The level sim begins in depends on whether the career branches out early or late. If it branches out late (Painter for example, which branches out after level 6), whether you graduate with honors or not will not matter. However, what I have said earlier applies to those careers that branch out early (Critic for example, which branches out after level 3) and to active careers which won't branch out at all.

Then there is this oddball career called Astronaut. Because it branches out after level 7 (way too late), every sim with physics or villainy degree will start out at level 8, no matter if it is distinguished or not. Honors won't matter there at all.

I had to look back to one of my videos, which detailed it. I'll share it below at the timestamp the table is in.
https://youtu.be/w7CHXZ2FP6s?t=1879

"jpsulsuldagdag;c-18063989" wrote:
Thanks for answering guys. I never knew those before. I'm so dumb. thanks.

You're not dumb. It's OK to not know things, and the best move to get rid of confusion is asking questions. The only thing I can suggest is enjoy the game. If you are curious about the expansion pack, you may watch the video I have shared for more info.

thanks

"Stormkeep;c-18064593" wrote:
That's actually brilliant, @Simmerville.
While I figured out that I could apply for more scholarships while in the middle of a degree program, I never thought to try actually switching universities like that...I never realized it was even an option. I assumed you'd lose any progress you had already made in terms of number of courses.

It might affect organizations you are in, I never focused much on hose. I can't think of anything else. Switching Uni is possible each time you start a new term. At least it used to be, it's been a while since I did this as I actually prefer that not all my sims get the top result :)