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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 18th Aug 2013 at 6:34 PM Last edited by High Plains Gamer : 18th Aug 2013 at 6:56 PM.
Default Winning at University
After putting a number of sims through the university, it occurs to me that university life for our sims is nothing like university life for real people. In fact, it is quite possible to "win" the university game. Our sims can graduate being far wealthier than when they enrolled, unlike real life where many American students are condemned to debt peonage for the rest of their lives.

Here are some things I have learned about winning at University, which do not involve any cheats or mods.

Getting Rich: If your sim goes to the administration building, he can get financial aid. This aid varies from 2,000 to 5,000 simoleons. depending on the sims academic performance. Your sim can ask for this aid every 24 hours, any time of the day or night. Typically, after classes, I will have my sim go to the administrative office to collect his or her stipend every day.

This can add up to real money. By the time your sim graduates and returns home, he or she should be able to afford a nice home. Not a starter, but a nice, fully furnished and decorated home. Plus a nice car as well.

Passing by Partying There are several ways of improving your academic performance. Studying for classes is a sucker ploy. In fact, studying is a classic case of letting school get in the way of your education.

Most majors have useful ways of increasing academic performance. For example, physical education majors improve their academic performance by working out and playing sports. This give you a triple whammy: (1) you increase your athletic skill, (2) you increase your academic performance, and (3) you increase your jock cred.

But my favorite is the Business major. You can increase your academic performance by increasing your charisma skill. One of the best ways of improving charisma is by ... partying. You send your sim to every party they can attend, and then use the charisma interactions. In particular, you want to tell jokes and get to know your fellow sims because both of these have their own achievement awards (along with having lots of friends). So by partying, your sim (1) improves academic performance, (2) improves his or her charisma skill, (3) completes charisma challenges, (4) improves cred with jocks, nerds and rebels, (5) makes lots of friends, and (6) gets to woohoo a lot.

The same is largely true with the other majors. You just have to develop a skill which is useful, rather than waste time studying.

Even though it does not generally help academic performance, the university is also the perfect opportunity to develop Twallan's Kama Sutra skill. The university is a target rich environment. I have one sim who simply placed a bed in the front entry way of her dorm and threw a party. Her goal, still unachieved, was to woohoo with each of the party goers.

Social Networking Skill Althoug largely unappreciated because its financial rewards are not so great, the Social Networking skill may be the most valuable in the game. I usually have my sims start developing this skill when they become teens, blogging at every opportunity. By the time they reach the university, they are well on their way towards mastering the skill.

Blogging strikes me as the most productive ways of increasing this skill for several reasons. First, you can ask your followers for advice, which gives your academic performance a significant boost. Do this every day, and your sim will never have to open a book so long as he or she attends class. Of course, the quicker you can max your academic performance, the sooner you will max out on the stipend from the university.

Second, you can ask your followers for money. While somewhat useful, it is no where near as profitable as collecting your daily stipend.

Third, as tacky as it is, you can break up via text message. This is particularly useful for heartbreaker sims, who can text the breakup to the boyfriend/girlfriend and move onto the next conquest.

Most useful is the relationship transmorgifier. Upon arriving at the university, you can turn all of your roomies into best friends. They will cook, clean and fix up the place upon request. If you take a fancy to another sim, you can instantly make the relationship romantic, or even turn them into a boyfriend or girlfriend with a flick of the switch. And when your sim gets tired of them, the same switch allows you to put them back into the friend zone.

The best part is, your sim can be a super slut without taking a hit on his/her reputation. Well, you might get the "exploring options" reputation, but for all the fun your sim is going to have, it's a small price to pay.

It's like having your own crew of super obedient robots to do your bidding. And yes, your professors really like you, too.

Also, if your lifetime wish is to be super popular, this can be achieved in short order.

Are their others willing to share their university tricks?
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Eminence Grise
#2 Old 18th Aug 2013 at 6:44 PM
Interesting collection of strategies I admit that I gave up on sending sims to Uni pretty early on, but your post makes me feel I should have another go at it!
Mad Poster
#3 Old 18th Aug 2013 at 6:45 PM
This just made University Life sound broken.

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Instructor
Original Poster
#4 Old 18th Aug 2013 at 7:05 PM
Quote: Originally posted by matrix54
This just made University Life sound broken.


Or not.

As in real life, playing by the rules often just gets one screwed.

My big mistake in life was listening to what the grown ups told me: study hard, work hard, put off enjoying yourself, and play by the rules.

And what did I gain from my BA and an advanced degree? About 50 pounds.

In real life, I think the real winners of the university game are those who make a lot of friends, and most importantly, make a lot of connections. Connections, which in the future will help them secure a good job. It's for these connections that many people pay the big bucks to go to places like Harvard.

I think of one of my school buddies. He was not an outstanding student by any means, but he did learn how to play the game. He became very active in Republican politics, which landed him a job in big law. Then he became solicitor general for the state, and now is a judge on the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Perhaps, unintentionally, EA may have given simmers a lesson in how life really works.
Eminence Grise
#5 Old 18th Aug 2013 at 7:57 PM
Heh Well, whether you get what you want out of college depends what you want, I guess.

On the financial side, though -- back when I was in college and grad school (seventies/eighties), it was perfectly possible to go to school through a PhD basically free, even if you weren't going to get rich doing it. Student loans were rare; good students got scholarships, lots more got work/study (library, cafeteria etc), research assistantships, or other forms of funding. Those kinds of benefits weren't taxed back then. And state universities, which include some of the best in the country, really were basically free to residents if they qualified for admission. So I don't see the financial side as misleading, though it may be anachronistic (I really hate the move towards student loans ).
Instructor
Original Poster
#6 Old 19th Aug 2013 at 4:38 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Srikandi
Heh Well, whether you get what you want out of college depends what you want, I guess.

On the financial side, though -- back when I was in college and grad school (seventies/eighties), it was perfectly possible to go to school through a PhD basically free, even if you weren't going to get rich doing it. Student loans were rare; good students got scholarships, lots more got work/study (library, cafeteria etc), research assistantships, or other forms of funding. Those kinds of benefits weren't taxed back then. And state universities, which include some of the best in the country, really were basically free to residents if they qualified for admission. So I don't see the financial side as misleading, though it may be anachronistic (I really hate the move towards student loans ).


I was in the same boat. A year's tuition for a professional degree was about $2500 per year,in today's dollars. This is sort of like getting cable with all of the premium channels. The real cost was the opportunity cost of not working for several years. Sadly, this is no longer the case. And to add insult to injury, the number of college graduates is. Now outpacing the number of jobs by about two to one.

As far as grades and studying, I don't think I have ever been asked about what grade I got in a particular class during any job interview. In fact, I don't even recall being asked about class rank or GPA. All of the good jobs I have had have come through contacts and networking. As they say, it's not what you know, but who you know.

Unfortunately, our educational system teaches people how to be students, but little else.

Keeping this in mind, it does not seem so far off base for the Sims to reward players who do something other than play the scool game.

In fact even in the lower grades, a sim's time might be better spent doing something other than attending school. After all, negative traits can be bought off with a modest expenditure of lifetime happiness.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 29th Aug 2013 at 8:56 PM
I agree with the OP...lots of times I'll have a married couple in college, one will be a Business major, and every time they WooHoo the Business major's performance goes up!

And unlike TS2 University, the academic meter, I noticed, goes down instead of staying at the same level.

One thing I like to do, especially if a Sim is a bit financially strapped--have them go for 6 classes over one term (or 12 over 2). This gives them one class per day, giving them time to build related skills. I've done that, had them retake the aptitude test when they get home, and lots of times they'll be rewarded extra credits.


If they have 3 classes a day, I put fruit in their inventory to munch between classes so they don't starve. Forget soda or candy bars...seems there are a LOT of bad candy bars and cans of soda! If they want Rebel influence, I give them herbs to eat.

Who is Q? qanon.pub
Instructor
#8 Old 18th Sep 2013 at 11:37 AM
"In real life, I think the real winners of the university game are those who make a lot of friends, and most importantly, make a lot of connections. Connections, which in the future will help them secure a good job. It's for these connections that many people pay the big bucks to go to places like Harvard."

You are very right, and I remember well how I liked Sims 2 where it was emphasized in career advancement. In the Sims 2, to get a promotion your sim had to make a certain number of friends. However skilled your sim was, he/she couldn't get that higher level in his job if he didn't have that at least 4 or more friends (depending on level). I liked that because it taught us the importance of social network, even the importance to suck up. I know we don't like it, but for those who want to get promoted, it's an unpleasant must-to-do.

In Sims 3 there is always a requirement in diferent job levels to suck up to boss, or be friends with your colleagues, but it's not a "must" for being promoted.
Test Subject
#9 Old 28th Oct 2013 at 7:36 PM
I learned about the stipend from the admin building early on as well. I made sure I used that to my advantage. After being in school for a week my sim had $25000 extra. I was like wow.
Field Researcher
#10 Old 31st Oct 2013 at 2:22 AM
semi-related: my sim, a science major, still had her performance going down while using the science station! what. it went up while playing with the dumb skeleton but analyzing seeds and stuff? apparently slacking.
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