1) You cannot alter the dorm without using cheats
- This means among other things, most students do not have their own computer in their room.
2) If you do mod the dorm, the dorm type building template does not allow stoves, not even outdoor grills.
3) 'Research and Debate' skill.
a) Why are these not separate skills? They are very different skills in reality.
b) Why is Debate skill not simply a function of Charisma skill? Someone with a 10 Charisma has no skill at debate?
4) You 'rabbithole' to class, which is fine.. except you do not entirely. Your sim gets in the elevator, then outside, and actually walks to class, which depending on pathing can result in being late to class.
5) Separate homework per class can really add up.
6) You cannot start as a university student. If you intend on living on campus, you have to have a home, apply to university (and apply for any scholarship(s)), wait for acceptance and then sell your home...
7) Dorm rooms are not treated like apartments but rather just as additional communal rooms. You can lock the door, but I have loaded from saves to occasionally find strange students in my Sim's room. And by randomly, I mean loading a save can mean a sim there who was not there when you saved and if you go back to the main menu without saving and load again, that stranger sim may or may not be there next load.
8) No way to actually schedule classes to mesh with a job. IRL in any major university, there are multiple classes of any given common course and you can choose a schedule that works best for you. Uncommon or less taken courses can be another matter, but still...
9) Secret societies. My sim keeps getting sad that people are whispering and she cannot hear them. Seriously? How does such a sim function in public? Cannot go to any restaurant or other public place unless they can hear clearly everything said at every table and feels part of every conversation? Plus the nigh constant sadness is just another artificial barrier to overcome.
10) Moving in on the first day of school. No real settle in time. (This seems to have been a side effect of having enrolled late in the day)
11) The game can schedule back to back courses and in such a case allows no time to get between classes.
12) Terms are too short. Normal RL terms are seasonal, which feels natural. I suspect they set the term length at 7 days since that is the minimum season length but with them that short, it feels like there is no time to really feel like you are at university. Most of the 'extras' such as teams, groups, etc seem to fall by the wayside in favour of simply concentrating on studies.