How does one survive the boring experience of sending their sims to college? What are all the perks you get for certain skills and such? How do you join a sorority or fraternity? How about a secret society? Got any more info to share?

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http://www.sims2wiki.info/wiki.php?...Help:University

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- To make it into a secret society, you need 3 friends who have black jackets on, with llamas on the pocket area. Secret society members don't always wear these jackets, but watch carefully - at least one per semester goes past.

- If you have Seasons installed, set all seasons to Fall if you want to do everything quickly - sims will skill quickly, write their papers quickly, write their assignments quickly, leaving you more time to goof off.

Also, the best places to meet Secret Society members are Campus community lots; they always wear their distinguishable llama jackets there, whereas they usually visit residential lots (dorms or regular campus homes) in their casual clothes.

There are several ways to join a Sorority or Fraternity (the game knows them only as Greek Houses however, and both female and male sims can join; it's up to you to either split them up in male-only or female-only greek houses, for realism purposes)

Firstly, if there already is a Greek house on campus:

-You can request membership to any of the existing Greek Houses by using the phone. Once the call is made, a party-like scenario begins. What you need to do is build relationships with the Greek members, the highest being with the leader. Careful though, because the clock is ticking, so you don't have all day! A useful popup window will inform you of the time elapsed, how long you've got left and what level of daily relationship you need to reach with each member. If you succeed, you are granted membership and you can either move into the Greek House lot (and thus gaining all the perks - as well as disadvantages) or remain where you are, and only get a memory and, if one existed, fulfill the want to Join a Greek House. If you are rejected, don't worry; you can always try again. It is much easier if you already are friendly with the members.

-A second way is by playing the Greek House lot and its existing members. They can ask any sim to Pledge, which is becoming a sort of probationary member (this also needs a Friend or above relationship level; otherwise the request will be rejected).
During this time, the pledge can be influenced to do anything without Influence cost. Once the pledge period is completed (it lasts several good sim hours, which need to be spent on the Greek lot by the pledge. One day is usually not enough, and the aspiring Greek house members will need to return the following days to complete pledge period) Once the period is completed though, the sim becomes a full member and they can either move in or not.

Careful, though! You will have to play all the sims moved into the Greek house lot, so choose wisely.

If your college does not have an existing Sorority of Fraternity, it is easy to start one yourself! Move any sim into a *residential* lot (not a dorm or Secret society), and by using the Phone - Greek House - Apply for Charter, you can begin your very own Greek House. All rules apply from now on, and other sims can join your house in the ways described above. Note however that from the moment your Charter has been approved, no sims can be merged into the household any other way than by joining.

The Perks of being in a Greek House:

- Well, for once, this is a great way to make many friends, so especially Popularity sims will love it (they even roll wants of joining a Greek house)

-Greek Houses have levels. The more members you get, and the more friends all of your members have, the higher the level, which means you can get even MORE members and campus fame.

-Greek members can autonomously "Visit Campus". They vanish at the edge of the lot (you can summon them back any time by cancelling their action) and return with yummy snacks, like pizza

I hope that's helpful. If you need anything added/removed/changed, just shout

Random University notes:

Secret society members will also live in the doem with you. Sometimes they wear the uniform, but other times they are in normal clothes. You can find out who is in the secret society by inviting a guest over while everybody is home (showing "fun" bubbles coming through the door), then leaving your guest alone to wander. The guests will wander into secret society dorm rooms if the dormie is there.

If you go into buy/build mode in a dorm, you can see who is in various dorm rooms. (Very helpful if you lost track of where your guest went.)

After you get a GPA in the first half of your first semester, you can tutor your fellow students with a GPA less than yours. You can even give them a "learned to study" memory which helps them get assignments done faster and cuts down on the number of discarded assignments that stack up on every available surface.
You can tutor them for free and build up relationship points faster, or you can tutor them for money. (You can even do their homework FOR them if you have a knowledge sim who is itching to do unnecessary assignments for aspiration points.)

If you click on a bookshelf and "do research" you can then click on every other sim you see and ask them to join group research. (Even cow mascots, which would otherwise be occupied with making life miserable.) Npc sims will stay doing group research until their needs drive them away, and some of them would be willing to starve rather than stop reading. 3 hours of research with 15 other sims after your skill is high enough to open your bar all the way will pretty much guarantee an easy A+ for the semester, especially if you influence someone to write a term paper for you. (or write it yourself) Group research REALLY zaps fun, however. Even for a totally serious knowledge sim who wanted to do it in the first place, 3 hours is about the limit before you should stop and go have some fun, although the NPCs may refuse to get up. (If they want to stay and keep reading, I let them.)

Knowledge sims are prone to wanting to do their own work, (and occasionally everyone else's), but other sims are prone to wanting to party. A party in a dorm usually ends up migrating to the rooms of your secret society members. Don't worry too much about trying to track down the guests, just make sure nobody is left alone and spend a lot of time "hanging out" with everybody who is still interested in being in a room which actually has a tv and stereo in it. And try not to invite people who hate each other. If an argument gets started, send the one who initiated it home.

Semesters are 72 hours long (3 days), with 2 semesters per year. You then have another 72 hours to have some fun before you have to go back to the main neighborhood. You can leave early by calling a taxi or by having a graduation party.

If your time is up before the graduation party is over, the party ends early with whatever score you got before the taxi comes.

You cannot go back to the secret society building after you graduate, although you still know the secret handshake and can use it with anyone else who knows it.

If you have a greek house, you need to make sure that there is always at least one member who lives in it or the greek house is disbanded after the last member leaves the house.

When you move out of a dorm, it is left in the same condition as it was in when you moved, although you do get new dormies. And if you were going to get an Outing or Date gift, it is occasionally delivered to the new residents. (The old assignments are also still all over everywhere unless you use move objects to delete them.)

You do need to pay bills, which are divided by the number of students in a dorm and then added together for all the playable sims in the dorm. (Tuition fees, I suppose.)
And you CAN get a visit from the Repo man. As usual, only the playable sims will pay bills, which means you.

You can become "Big on Campus" by getting enough friends to build your influence to the top level.

The secret society building is different with each campus, but they all have a cowplant inside a fence, a ressurrect-o-nomitron, and ways to build skills and make money. (usually free career or aspiration rewards.) Nobody knows how to wash a dish, flush a toilet, or fix a sink, however. (That's why they inducted YOU!) Servos don't work on a Uni lot, but you can give them a cleanbot.
If you have an expansion which allows you to store things in inventory, you can borrow the cowplant to eliminate irritating cow mascots or other annoying sims.

There is a coach who occasionally comes onto the lot and forces all sims present to start working out. This builds the body score faster than working out on their own, but he tends to come at really odd times. And sims who were not home at the time have the "work out" icon queued into their "to do" list as if it were user assigned, so you need to manually cancel it if you want them to do something else (like eat.)

Greek houses let you throw a toga party.
When you visit campus, you can also get things like the spindle coffee table, the cheap tv, or a boombox. The first time they visit campus they come home with a SimGreek letter if you haven't already put one up. (hint- save your money.) In my game, the chance of coming home with something OTHER than a pizza is directly influenced by the mood of everyone in the house. If everybody is in the high green on the hunger bar, but low green or yellow for fun, they tend to come back with fun stuff. If anybody is in low green or yellow hunger, it's usually a pizza. And if everybody is in high green for everything, it is usually a piece of furniature or a lamp. (Although "usually" is NOT "always". I have gotten a pizza shortly after using Maxmotives, so it isn't foolproof.)

University may be long, but it is well worth it, it gives your sims social, financial and skills boosts to start life, and means they are not all going to be CAS "factory" sims... You have them start their adult life with some skills, talent badges, money, friends, maybe even a date!

Graduation bonuses:
Graduation party: Say goodbye to your friends with a BANG!
72 hours free learning time
Magna cum laude- High honor, high pay!
Cum laude- Not-so-high honor, but still high pay!

WAIT A MINUTE! How many people say that going to college is boring? For me, University opened up a lot of new things my sim can do! Also, now we can say this phrase: "So many things to do, so little time!" How can College be boring? Geez...

When a sim finishes college and ends up in the sim bin in the normal neighbourhood they always have 20 000 to spend on a new place to live.
If your sims had lots of money at Uni, before you leave, buy lots of stuff, put it in their inventory and then use or sell when you move them into their new homes

Just to clarify the "Big Sim on Campus" want and how to fill it: It requires 12 non-family member friends. Family members (they have the blue people icon on their pictures) will not help in attaining this goal. It is wonderful if a Sim spins up this want; you get 5000 influence points for attaining it. It is one want that I always lock.

Beware! Just because the influence meter has been completely opened, it does not mean that they have the memory or will fulfill the want. Family 'friends' count in optimizing the influence meter, but do not count towards the Big Sim on Campus power want.

is this a popularity sim thing? i've never once seen that want pop up for my sims.

I have had it with all aspirations. It is somewhat rare, but sometimes pops up when a Sim is close to attaining it. It is *not* a lifetime want, but rather a power want that spins up.

"Big On Campus" starts to appear when you have about 8 non-family friends or have many friends even before entering college. This goal is easier obtained if you join and move in a greek house.

Another tip for finding Secret Society members. If you invited over someone and they go immediately to one of your dorm neighbors, chances are good that they're both in the SS.

A good way to build friendships: play chess. When you play chess at the dorms or community lots, visiting Sims tend to play a long time with your Sim. In fact, they'll play until their moods get low. But by the time that happens, you should be friends (or close to it!)

If only I had University...

Career Reward Items: Remember to send your teen sims with family Career Reward items. In fact, Tank Grunt and Puck Summerdream have families with *extra* Career Reward Items they won't need. You can also have "alumni" call up students and use the Seasons "Give Gift" command to give their student friends Career Reward items. (Hint: Use and adult Sim who's fulfilled the "Maximize 7 skills" LTW to go job hunting!) Leave them behind for the other sim students entering college.

Talent Badges: Don't forget that the extra time in university can be used to work on talent badges as well. You can't activate Servos on campus, but you can purchase a community lot and start selling them to other sims! You may also want to practice on your cosmetology badge on other students so you don't have to live with clown-faced townies back in Pleasantville...