Well, I can at least say that if you can find mods or can mod it yourself, it can make a difference. My college experience now doesn't have food everywhere, or trash piles just for the sake of trash piles, or clingy sims that follow me off to every lot I go to, even if I declare them my enemy. My soccer injuries don't last for more than four hours so they are now just pesty instead of almost game breaking, my ping-pong table isn't quite as overly attractive to sims, and since I started a new game and purged it of every pre-made sim, I don't have Bjorn Bjergssen as my art model (although that was a bit funny). There are things still out of balance, and boring stretches of time (just how many times do I have to clean the statue? It's more often pranked than clean. And why doesn't everyone go to bed in the dorms by a certain time so ultra speed kicks in and I don't have to stare at the screen for so long while my sim sleeps?). But I have found enough things to do with the different organizations and such that it was worth going back with a fresh sim. So I think my final grade is going to be somewhere around a "B"; could have been much better, but I enjoy it over all. And the research skill imho is definitely the key to happiness and success at college.
Edit: Although one thing that's now annoying me now that I'm using them is that so many of the organization events don't trigger properly. I'm at the commons eating, see that an event is supposed to start soon, and it never does. And some of them don't end properly, either, and sims just stand there, stuck.
