@AlHollandiyah That's good to know. I didn't realize this. That will save time for sure. The wait is about 3 days I think, but it doesn't take that long to level a skill up to 3 or 4. What you said about the Research skill though, 5-8 degrees to choose from? :o That's interesting, maybe you don't even need to pick a related skill. Maybe if you're a high-level researcher you can do whatever you want? I'm going to try that too. I've never seen so many distinguished degree options to choose from.
@nerdfashion My game is very glitchy, so it could be a bug for me, but I think there is a rare chance. I checked the save that has these two students and one is in the distinguished degree for Art History. She's studying without a single skill in painting or anything remotely related lol. She has 2 cooking skill points and a few 1 point skills which came after she was waiting. She was mostly just sleeping and eating while waiting. I have no idea how she got into that program, but it makes me laugh. Actually, I found three low skilled Sims in distinguished degrees. My other two Sim are in Communications and Psychology, but one of them bribed his way in I just can't remember which one.
The reason I don't think it's a glitch is that if I level up to 5 points, I got multiple distinguished degree options, whereas these Sims just had only the one distinguished degree option.
The Carl Sims website seems to say that you start out with a small chance, 5/20 chance, for a distinguished degree and then your chances get multiplied or reduced, based on various things like high school grades, skill levels, fame etc.. So if you have a C or an F in high school, the multiplier drops below zero and drags your chances down a lot or if you fail at an action to improve your chance. If you level to 3+ points on a skill, your chances for the related degree double, which make sense why you then get a few options for related degrees.
Here's the chart if anyone is interested, the multiplier bonus is the same for all the degrees, but the skills are different per degree:
Requirements: Being accepted into one of the two schools for a distinguished degree in Art History is not guaranteed, but having the following skills and factors in your favor will make it more likely. You begin with a 5/20 chance. This is multiplied by:
Factors:
High School, "A" Student, 2x multiplier
High School, "B" Student, Flat, no gain or loss
High School, "C" to "F" Student, From 0.5 (C) to 0.25 multiplier to score with D-F.
SKILLS:
Archaeology 3+ x2
Selvadoradian Culture 3+ x2
Photography 3+ x2
Charisma 2-3 x2
Writing 2-3 x2
Painting 2-3 x2
Charisma 4-6 x4
Writing 4-6 x4
Painting 4-6 x4
Charisma 7-10 x8
Writing 7-10 x8
Painting 7-10 x8
Additionally, Sims can flaunt fame for a x2 multiplier (but will have it dropped to 0.25 on failure). Sims who donate can also see a big multiplier of x16, but a failure there is the worst of the bunch (0.125). Having a multiplier less than 1 is dropping the score a lot. Ultimately, your final score will determine if you are accepted into a distinguished program.
