Mikayla's Art & Multimedia
Mikayla's Art & Multimedia
3/8/2021
Sims 4 has brought back the Sims 3 “University Life” back into it’s game with the expansion “Discover University”. Both of these expansions bring the experience of sims being able to attend college and experience the campus lifestyle.
In the Sims 3 “University Life”, the expansion allows sims to attend university. Similar to the college application process in real life, the expansion let’s sims take a aptitude test to test their skills in hopes to earn scholarships, pick their major, pick how many credits they will be enrolled in for a term(s), and chose their housing plan. Once a sim has completed these steps, the college moving van will come and pick up the sim and take them to campus.
From there, your sim will meet a variety of sims with different majors and social groups. Your sim will also meet other sims in their house depending on whether your sim lives in a single one bedroom house or if your sim shares a space within a dorm, frat, or sorority. Your sim is free to explore campus and engage in community activities like protests and seminars. Your sim will also be responsible for their university performance, which can be managed by attending class, studying, and taking exams.
By the end of each term, your sim will receive a report card and have the option to either return home or continue their education until it’s time to graduate. Once a sim has completed the necessary requirements for their degree, the sim will have a quick graduation ceremony where they can invite family and friends, and receive a degree that will help a sim boost up a few levels in their desired career path.
The Sims 4 “Discover University” expansion shares a lot of similarities to the Sims 3 “University Life”, except the Sims 4 expansion does not exclude non-university sims from living on Campus (since Sims 4 expansion maps are all open worlds) and does not show the move-out process (since travel in the Sims 4 is by loading screen). The process of applying to university is also similar to the previous expansion with the addition of more scholarships your sim can apply for including career-based, need-based, skill-based, and distinguished scholarships. Your sim can also apply to two separate universities (which differentiate by degrees) and choose based on their acceptance to one or both, which university your sim will attend.
From there your sim will be able to adjust their degree and class options (with risks of losing any awarded scholarships) and their housing plan before continuing to university. The Britechester map is similar to the Sims 3 university campus which includes dorms and other campus sightings like lounges and other academic buildings. Sims can also partake a variety of clubs and campus activities with the addition of poetry readings and sports gatherings.
I personally like the Sims 4 “Discover University” expansion because it stays true to the previous game mechanics shown in the Sims 3 “University Life” expansion. I believe the newer expansion introduces a lot of features that improve the quality of the expansion like the ability to apply to separate universities, scholarship options, the ability to take electives, the creation of clubs, the variety of clubs to join, and the ability to join sports teams. The only comment I have on the Sims 4 expansion is the move-out process is missing from the previous expansion which I would’ve liked to see in this game, but overall I think the readjustment of the application process makes up for this missing mechanic. Would you like to see the Sims 4 “Discover University” bring back any old mechanics from the Sims 3 expansion?