I couldnt find a thread about it. If there are, well... oops!

Im playing a uberhood and currently going through Riverblossom Hill. So far only done Ottomas family where David will grow to YA the next sim week. In real life, he will turn 19. While Ive YA in neighorhood mod, I was debating which sims should go to university or not. Fortunate all the teens going to college wont go until ive gone through all the families so I have a long time to decide. All the premade college sims were "speed-played" first so all universities are empty.

Although the thread is technically not about Riverblossom Hill, I still wanted to add it as an example

My system - all of them go Townies inlcuded.

I have 6 dorms with 6 rooms each, which means I can have 36 playables in them. Sometimes, one or two has to move in somehwere else, because all the dorms are full.

Create some logic for who can fit in college. If the college is very far, perhaps they can't afford the moving. Or they can't afford to pay for the college. Perhaps they need to keep hold on the house if other family members are old or children. Maybe they are of a farmer kind if they live in a countryside and need focus on tending the crops instead of studying. If they come from a city, maybe they aspire to be criminals or vampyres. Maybe they are in love with someone who can't go to college.

All teens become young Adults in my game whether they attend uni, do it at home or do something else.

If a hood has a uni my teens have an option to go if they want to go or are bright students.
If the hood doesn't have a uni attached they can do uni at home, again if this is what they want or are bright.
Other young adults stay in the main hood maybe running a shop, getting a job or some bum around.

One YA in my current BACC hood spent her time living at home, woohooing and had two kids. She is now an adult but has not changed. I simply put her on birth control since I am sure with her 20 whoohoo LTW she would be having babies every year.
YA can do everything an adult can do with a few mods.

In your case I would have David do uni from home so he can continue to hang with his friends.

Everyone sounds more sensible than I do, I know But - I like playing Uni

Yeah, all my sims become YA when they are in real life age 19 to 22 and I play 1 day = 1 year for college as well as the other ages.

Riverblossom Hill most sims seems to have LTW that doesnt require degree. apart from Jules OMackey (orginally was politics but i changed it to Journalism because that was her part time job want) but I might have this neighbor study at home rather than as another household at university (saves me extra HH as Ive about 150 households currently )

While ive some Sim State YA sims moved to RBH I dont find those unis suitable for a winter based hood. I also have custom Winter Wonderland locals moved to RBH for some variety. Despite its an Uberhood, I play each hood invidulally.


ALSO: I was mostly interested in how other people play their sims.

In my modern game, all of the teens go to Uni from the hood, even when it means a lot of micromanaging. I make them study for those classes because they're not in a dorm, or out of the neighborhood. They have no excuses to goof off!

In Arundel which is, as you know, medevial, only males go to university (women were not allowed, as the universities were run by the church) from the hood. The micro managing is slightly less onerous in that realm. The girls grow up to adults the day before they would be YA's and I do feel slightly guilty for not allowing them to have the experience. Sorry, girls, the patriarchy did not like women getting an education then!

My default is to send everybody, because University is my favorite expansion and it's most fun when there's lots of playables there for maximum dating, parties, drama, and network building. In my neighborhood where I'm deliberately not adding a University or using elixir for a less intense play, I'm finding adulthood to be way too short for all the things an adult life should hold. University is a relaxed time, for character development, mate finding, experimentation, and occasionally aspiration changes.

Even in a normal hood, though, there's occasionally reasons to keep a sim at home. Trent Traveller was a newly-divorced wreck when Drama Acres Tina should have gone to university with her friends, so she stayed home to take care of him, which was set to become a storyline when the hood started crashing uncontrollably. With all her friends at university, she had a real problem with being out of step with her peers.

I have a retro setup for historical play, which includes Almighty Hat's aging mod, which just so happens to mesh beautifully with the 3-uni-days = 1 hood day schedule of a normal hood. It means I can play one-day rotations all through the hood and keep the university sims and their stay-at-home peers more in synch, and determine who goes and who does it according to the customs of whatever era they're invoking. In my Depression Riverblossom, I look at the lifestyle the sims were raised in and the lifestyle they wish to have growing up. Sims from wealthy or intellectual backgrounds (the Roths, Jules) are expected to go and sims from working class backgrounds (the Roselands, Gavigans) aren't. David Ottomas's father was disappointed that he decided against University, but he wanted to start earning money right away and opened a roadhouse instead. He got engaged to Jules, who did go to University, and waited for her, saving money; by the time she graduated he was able to buy the big house with the enormous pond for her to live in. Isaiah Gavigan wanted to go to University but there was no tradition of it in his family and had gotten a teen job (I hate teen jobs and don't normally go for them; but the extra time granted by the age mod made it feasible and the Gavigans needed the extra cash), in his LTW career, and it didn't make sense to give it up for college. None of the Newsons, who were adopted by Leod MacGregor, are going to college except for Georgia, who is Leod's favorite and has spent her childhood and teenhood maxing her music skill. Gavin and Ginger moved out on their own (they're both gay and living together with their partners gives them a plausible cover - Ginger is supposedly married to Gavin's spouse and Gavin to hers), Gallagher inherits the farm, Gabriella works at Stella Roth's dry goods store in expectation of marrying Xander and getting the store when he graduates, Garret will do something in town, and Georgia will go to college and have a glittering musical career. Putting all the family eggs into one ambitious basket is something a lot of poor families have done. And so on.

It depends on what hood I'm playing what rules I use for university. My basic rule is that if a teen gets the want three days before growing up or if during their teen years they get the want to get a particular scholarship and then they do get that scholarship, then they are sufficiently motivated to go. Sometimes I also send them if they have a LTW for a career that requires university. The upshot is that most of my kids end up going.

In a more storytelling-focused hood like the one I'm playing now, I'll take into account their family circumstances (it's important to the parents or the family is too poor to afford it), what kind of student they were (C or higher grades), and other factors. So someone like Dustin Broke wouldn't go, but the Pleasant twins and Dirk would. The upshot is that most of my kids end up going.

Like Peni, I find university to be an almost essential period of extra time for building relationships, scouting out potential partners, preparing for careers, and having some fun before the adult grind. I've shortened it, but I couldn't play without it, probably.

I don't care about Uni for story sims (they usually stay their original age), but when I'm playing with families, I tend to send them away to Uni. Usually, I'll make sure to collect up a bunch of teens and send them off at the same time - usually 4-8 (because otherwise it takes too long if I'm just doing them one by one). I'm not particularly hung up in ages and such, and if that is an issue, I'll fix that as soon as they're out of Uni.

I'll usually have them skill up as much as possible before they reach the YA stage, so they get their scholarships before going off to uni. I'll sometimes use the Uni time as a way for the sims to find potential partners.

I have a on and off love affair with University. Sometimes I want to play and then sometimes I hate it. This time, I want to play it as I'm playing with Story Progression. SP will do the leg work, while I just have to pop-in to be nosy.

I have a question tho. Which University to you add to your hoods? Do you add all three pre-mades hoods, or a custom university. I just play Sim State, but i wonder if I should add all three, to give Pleasantview teens some choice. The problem with this is the bloat the Pleasantview will received when all those sims graduate.

One of the few rules I have is that all teens go to college.

I add all colleges to the main hoods so I have plenty of dorms.

Once there all students will get the skills they need, go to class and do homework. I'll have them do a term paper if they roll the want or do research if they roll the want.

I let them decide what they want their major to be, or let them remain undeclared until the game puts them in the philosophy major automatically in Junior year.

Edit to add: Since the semester length is usually 72 hours, I play one semester for 3 days in the main hood.

I don't have a Uni with every hood..and it really irritates me that teens still want to go to the non-existent college! I often make alien kids super smart when they are toddlers, and they all go to college. Other teens (no matter how they, or their parents, whine!) don't go to college because they don't like to study. Sometimes (Romance & lazy teens) they just seem more likely to not want to go. Besides ...since when does college PAY YOU to get good grades! College is too expensive in real life, and I my style is to copy RL...sort of.

A question for you: Default, everybody can go into college. Anyone have rules to admittance, disallow some who would otherwise want to go?

As I've said, only in the modern hoods does everyone go, due to 'college in the neighborhood.'

In my medieval themed one, only males go-I age up the female teens a few hours before they would normally do so to adult, thus skipping college altogether. If they're engaged, they will wait until their fiance is done with college before getting married. That takes 8 days because using the college adjuster I have to help them get through college by making them actually study for their courses.

I only let sims who have a "go to college" want and a C+ or higher grade to go to college. My kids only do homework when they have a want to do so so there are lots of teens who don't qualify. I figure that's fair, there are lots of other OFB and regular jobs that don't require degrees and someone has to do them!

I like variety for my game so I try to think about what each individual sim would want, what their family expects them to do etc. For example, if a sim's parents are university educated, then they will probably want the same for their children. Some sims might go against their family's wishes/expectations.

Then I have a little restriction - they need good enough grades, and although I have inteen, I don't allow non-YAs to live on campus and I don't allow sims to study from non-campus hoods. So if they have any children by the time they are the right age, they have to make a decision. Adoption, the child being looked after by another family member (e.g. the other parent, or the pregnant sim's parent/sibling/other relative) until the mother graduates, or not going to college.

In addition, college restricts some jobs in my game but going to college is not the only way to get those jobs but it is unusual/harder to work your way up another way.

In my Uberhood I have all three colleges attached and I have different courses at the different ones - La Fiesta Tech specialises in STEM and offers Physics, Maths and Biology, La Tour I tend to think of as bourgeois and it offers Literature, History and Philosophy. Sim State is more of a catch-all and offers the other courses - Art, Drama, Economics, Political Science and Psychology. (I decided this ages ago; I am now wondering why I didn't do arts/humanities specialisation.) They also have different grade requirements - B, A and C respectively.

I use Cyjon's semester changes to cut down the time because I find Uni too repetitive otherwise, and I clump students to send a cohort together; anyone who will age up within 2 days/4 days/a season of each other get lumped in together plus any NPC or townie teens that they have any particular friendship/relationship with. Once the NPC or townie ages up to YA, I make them into a townie so they become a dormie.

They are allowed to live in halls (dorms) for the first 2 years but then they have to move to a rented place on campus. I might get them to invite some dormie friends in order to make up enough money to do this. Greek houses are another reason I might make dormies playable. Dormies made playable for any of these reasons don't usually form any significant relationship with playables, so I don't let them graduate - if they get too close to their graduation date, I move them back to the first semester.

Dormies (made playable or not) who do develop significant relationships with playables I will allow to graduate and then make them into regular townies.

Sims not going to university get to keep an extra ~4 days at the end of their teen stage. If they are going I send them ~4 days before they age up. Each year on campus = 1 day in the main hood using the lot sync timer.

I make uni cost §20,000. It can be achieved through scholarships, loans, family household funds. Since there's a benchmark, I don't feel obligated to send everyone.

This is not an exact system, I kind of eyeball it, but:

Both parents went to university- 99% chance
If one parent went to university- 75%, depends on aspiration, wants, personality, if most of their friends are going
If neither parent went to university- 50%, depends on whether their family can afford it, do they have substantial skills for scholarships, are most of their friends are going, etc.
Neither parent went to university, no high skills to get scholarships- 0%

In all the years and that goes way back I have had University in my game, I have never play it. Even now 2025 I have no interest to play it.
The question I ask myself is why do I still have it install in my game, I don't even send my Sims teens to go there.
Maybe It's because after high school my parent force me to go to college. ( Gee )

I've had very long periods between playing Uni (I don't think I've even added a univesity in my game between 2008 and 2024), but the EP does have other features than just going to University. A lot of these are quite nice to have in the game. That's the great thing about the EPs in TS2 - they don't just add the "feature" - they also add a bunch of extra stuff. Even if I haven't sent sims to Uni, I've definitely used some of the other features of the pack over the years.
https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims_2:_University
(I don't hthnk everything is mentioned - for instance, the option to add more wants and locks that sims normally gain after finishing Uni is one I've used quite a bit, through mods).

This is where I think The Sims 3 did it better. I wish EA/Maxis added the YA stage as an actual, mandatory life stage to go through in The Sims 2. It never made sense to me to send an older sibling to uni and have them be YAs but then when they have a younger sibling, who shows no inclination of going to uni, they just grow up straight into adults, essentially messing up the age order. For this reason, I used to send all my Sims to uni back when I played in a custom neighborhood. If I ever get back into actually playing the Sims 2 - and not just creating for it, I'd consider following joandsarah77's method mentioned above. Seems reasonable, I'll just need the appropriate mods...

ETA: Here's the list:

-Post by Lamare: https://modthesims.info/showthread....658#post6001658
-Post by FranH: https://modthesims.info/showthread....679#post6001679

When I send sims to Uni, I prefer sending a whole bunch of them, so I can play through Uni all in one go. The age issue can be sorted out later, by moving the sims back into the main hood in order, and playing each sim for a few days until they are the proper age again (simulating them coming back from uni at different times). Any non-Uni sims who grew up directly to adults can also be handled this way, by not playing them (maybe move out?) until they're the correct age.

The YA age being mandatory in TS3 and TS4 only makes the adult stage much longer if you don't plan to send sims to Uni... (I don't have Uni in TS4, so the YA stage always felt a bit meh, especially since sims look pretty much identical from teen all the way to elder, with just a few differences in what they can do).