Discover University experiment(s) «123...Next Go

AlbaWaterhouse

Since this time around sims don't gain anything related to their personalities, aspirations, or traits that is exclusive to sims that graduate from Uni and what they get are careers boosts and bonuses, I am curious to see how well off a sim is really after going to uni compared to one that didn't, in the same amount of time.

My plan is to create two identical sims and play them in the same household. One will attend uni (normal degree, not the distinguished), the other will start from the bottom of the career. Then I want to see if in the time that the sim went to uni the other one could achieve the career level that the university attendee will get when graduating and how relevant the degree really is.

I'll keep you posted!

Anyone has tried anything similar? Or other experiments regarding DU? I am curious!

AlbaWaterhouse

I created this twin sisters


With exactly the same aspiration and traits


Let's see!

Atreya33

I am definitely looking forward to the results of your experiment. Do you already know what degree and job you are going for?

AlbaWaterhouse

Thanks! I think I am going for the teaching career, I wanted to pick one of the new ones. But if you are curious on another one to try, please let me know, I will start them off properly tomorrow.

Atreya33

A new career sounds interesting to test.

What I am curious about is the difference in their financial situation after 21 days of paying for university versus 21 of being employed with leveling up bonuses. Were you planning on including their financial situation in your test? I said 21 days because it is 3 terms/weeks with each 4 courses, the shortest option, but maybe you are planning on less courses per term? Will the student earn money in any way while at college?

AlbaWaterhouse

Yes! I was planning on including the finances as well to have an overall detailed view. I also plan for the sim to get her diploma in the least amount of time since I think that would be the fairest option for the test.
So, the student won't earn any money during college because she will be very busy trying to get the best grades and to finish uni in 3 terms.

AlbaWaterhouse

I couldn't wait any longer to start off the experiment so I squeezed into my real life day 30 minutes to set the twins up.

On Sunday at 08:04
Marla applied for a job in the education career (no cost)
Carla applied for University (-75 simoleons), she also applied for the 2 available scholarships ("education for all" and "Britechester resident")

First Monday:

Marla started work under the "work hard" option since I want both of them to try their best. She got a promotion already and earned 601 simoleons that day and is now level 2 in the career.

Carla received the acceptance letter for university at 10am and was granted 500 simoleons for one of the scholarship + 350 for the other. She enrolled straight away in UBrite (Psychology, to become a professor) and took a loan, now she has -115 on credit since she will be studying from home so I can play with the sister simultaneously, a dorm would have been a lot more money.

CK213

It's been a long time since I have bookmarked a thread.
Thanks for doing this. It sounds very interesting.

I was really disappointed that sims aren't rewarded any extra personality traits for attending University.
I think it will make it part of my game play to cheat them through certain aspirations to get the bonus traits and the resulting satisfaction points.

Most likely any aspirations that I don't plan on pursuing, but could use the reward trait.
I could also use the satisfaction points to buy retraiting potions to evolve their personality.

AlbaWaterhouse

It is Wednesday (of the first term) and Marla has already reached level 3 of the education career, on that day she didn't even need to work hard to get the promotion.
Carla on the other hand is struggling to get her homework, term papers, and presentations done on time.

AlbaWaterhouse

First week overview

Atreya33

So far things seem to go as expected.
Are your sims doing anything special in the weekend or just wait for the next week?

AlbaWaterhouse

Yes, so far no surprises although I feel like the one on the career will reach a much higher level than I anticipated before her sister graduates.

On Saturday both Marla and Carla worked hard on their goals, Carla even took part on the debate session but unfortunately didn't win.


The weekend ended with a great party at the twins' house (the sleected sim is Carla and the sim on the background by the door with a drink on her hand is Marla)


On a side note, Carla (the student) is gaining weight.

EA_Mai

Very interesting experiment! Thanks for sharing @AlbaWaterhouse!
Are you going to play for their whole adult lives? And if so, what lifespan length are you playing with, normal?

AlbaWaterhouse

Thanks @EA_Mai !
I am playing on normal lifespan and my plan was to play just until the end of the experiment (so when Carla finishes university and gets the job) but I am getting really attached to them both

AlbaWaterhouse

Grades are in!

Atreya33

AlbaWaterhouse wrote: »

Thanks @EA_Mai !
I am playing on normal lifespan and my plan was to play just until the end of the experiment (so when Carla finishes university and gets the job) but I am getting really attached to them both

Would you consider to play at least one day after graduation so we can see the difference in the money they can both earn in the education career?

Now I want to make a similar test myself but unfortunately I won't get DU before Christmas. Thank you for sharing your story.

AlbaWaterhouse

Thanks @Atreya33 !
I think I will keep playing with them for even longer than that, I just love them. I'll keep updating the post until a couple of days after graduation
Hang in there for the pack, Christmas is just around the corner now!

AlbaWaterhouse

Second Tuesday, Marla is already at level 5 of the education career.

EA_Mai

Nice!

Congrats for those perfect grades!

AlbaWaterhouse

Week 2 is over and Marla is now a Professor (level 6 on the education career)

AlbaWaterhouse

Carla is performing amazingly at UBrite and now that she got the hang of she can spend some time trying to find love as well.

Atreya33

AlbaWaterhouse wrote: »

Carla is performing amazingly at UBrite and now that she got the hang of she can spend some time trying to find love as well.

Does he have a name?

AlbaWaterhouse

Atreya33 wrote: »

AlbaWaterhouse wrote: »

Carla is performing amazingly at UBrite and now that she got the hang of she can spend some time trying to find love as well.

Does he have a name?

Yes
His name is Ismael Mesa, a sim of mine I really like.
You can find him in the gallery
https://tinyurl.com/tmmonjb

kalaksed

out of curiosity, are you having your student sim check for more scholarships as she levels skills up? those can start adding up, and a free ride for the last two terms would be a big help to her

(both of my sims that i've sent to uni have been getting free rides since day one. the first sim, not surprised, since she had 8-10 in skills associated with both her major (villainy) and many of the scholarships she applied for. actually made over $1k a term just from having so many scholarships. still nothing compared to your working sim. the second sim i was surprised about because she's barely got any skills at all, but managed to get both the 'education for all' and the soccer-related scholarship that requires a sim to join the uni soccer team)

AlbaWaterhouse

I haven't applied to any more scholarships since I thought she got already a large amount of money with the two she was granted. But I think it makes sense for the last term to have her apply to everything she can.
I'll write everything she could apply to and what she got when I do it.

SimTrippy

Bookmarked!! Curious to see the result