If you want to get the most out of your higher education, you should make sure to study while you are a teen. Although it is not necessary to take it to extremes…

Unlike in The Sims 2, you can no longer send teenagers to the university: You have to wait until they become young adults. And even then, it may be a good idea to wait a bit, or at least not take it all at once. You can now stagger your semesters throughout your sim’s life, and there are benefits and drawbacks to consider.

But before you get that far, be aware that your simulated children can still prepare for college by increasing their skills and getting good grades. In fact, if you are really nuts about college, you may want to pick the right traits for their scholarships. Yes, personality traits now influence what scholarships you get. Want to study arts? You may want the artistic trait, or the virtuoso or even natural cook. The scientific studies call for handiness, and of course if you want something sports related you want to be athletic. In practice, these traits won’t be necessary unless you go to college really early and are broke. Skills alone should give you both scholarships and study credits (so you don’t start with an empty study bar).

The requirements are not so bad. I started with a teenager in a new neighborhood, and after a few years as a young adult she got more scholarships than she needed for tuition. In fact, she came home from Uni with more money than she had before she enrolled. She hadn’t maxed all the relevant skills either, but she had made a decent progress during her teen years.  (I have bought the official MultiTab gadget, which helps quite a bit with learning and fun; but on the other hand, sims born in-game can begin learning skills early on.)

Children as well as teens and adults can now get a bonus moodlet from having studied enough. There are new ways of studying too, which we’ll hopefully get back to next time.

Before enrolling in college, make sure to take the aptitude test. It is necessary to get scholarships and study credit. But you can also take it just to see what you need to work more on. It gives a detailed breakdown of your strengths and weaknesses for each major. The test is part of the university package you get from the Llama mascot shortly after the game starts with the new expansion. It is probably a bad idea to delete this.

The benefit of going to Uni right away is that you will jump into level 4 of your first job, if the degree is relevant for the job. But even if you get your degree after you have started working, you should be promoted accordingly (I have not tested that, but the game says so) and you will definitely advance faster at higher levels (this I have tested.)

Note that you can return to Uni later for another major if you decide to change your career later in life – or if you just enjoy streaking, juice parties and unethical experiments on plants, sims and combinations of the two.

How long time you want to spend on campus is largely up to you. You can take one or two semesters at a time, then you must return home. But you can enroll again at once, although you should probably consider going through your inventory and see if there is something you can leave at home.

Time does not pass on your home lot while you are away. (It uses the same mechanics as World Adventures, for those who have that vacation-oriented expansion.) It is possible to send one sim from a household to university and let others stay behind. Since there is a drive from your home to the point of departure, you will need to get a babysitter if you leave small children behind. But your family does not age while you are away.

On the other hand, the people in University town do age while you are home. Or perhaps that is the work of the Story Progression mod? I don’t think so, though. It makes sense that they should age with you. They didn’t do that in The Sims 2, though. Then again, nobody did, not even your neighbors.

I recommend starting with the minimum course load the first time. It is surprisingly hard even for a genius with maxed mixology skills to max the study bar with double course load, while it is quite easy with just one. And there are plenty of things to spend your time on. But try with 1 semester and a minimum number of study credits the first time, and increase later if it seems too easy.

As for the things to do in college, we shall hopefully get back to them next time.