The Sims 4 university: how to get degrees
Distinguished degrees and how to enroll explained
By going to university, your Sims can earn degrees that can propel your Sim into the career of their dreams. Better scores give you a better head start, so how do you achieve the top grades?
In this The Sims 4 Discover University guide, we will tell you how to enroll into university, where to get distinguished degrees, and everything you need to know about getting a degree. If you're looking to join the secret society, look at our The Sims 4 secret society guide for details.
- How to enrol into university in The Sims 4
- Where to get distinguished degrees
- How to get a degree in The Sims 4 university
- Choosing whether to live on or off campus
- Managing your Sim's course load
- Go to class and be an active participant
- Doing homework
- Completing coursework
How to enrol into university in The Sims 4
To apply for university, have your Sim use a computer and select "University", then click "Apply to Universities". Your Sim will then apply for a place at both University of Britechester and the Foxbury Institute.
Your Sim will get an acceptance letter after one or two in-game days. This letter will inform you of which course places your Sim can take up. Your application status can also be checked via the computer.
Once you've had confirmation of a university place, you can enrol in the university of your choice via the computer, mailbox, or your cell/mobile phone.
Where to get distinguished degrees
Since there are two universities, your Sim will want to go to the right university for their skills and aspirations. Distinguished degrees get you an even bigger boost to your Sim's career. The University of Britechester tends to offer distinguished degrees for arts and humanities subjects, while the Foxbury Institute offers distinguished degrees for the sciences.
To gain acceptance into distinguished degrees, your Sim will need to have high skills levels related to the distinguished degree course. For example, acceptance into the distinguished Art History degree at the University of Britechester is more likely if your Sim has higher charisma, painting, and writing skills.
Below are two tables that show what courses the universities offer, as well as the organisations that can be found within each one.
University of Britechester degrees and organisations
| Distinguished Degrees | Other Degrees | Organisations | Organisation theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art History | Biology | Art Society | Creative skills |
| Communications | Computer Science | Britechester Spirit Corps | General Focused on school pride and the sports team |
| Culinary Arts | Economics | The Debate guild | Research and Debate skill |
| Drama | Physics | ||
| Fine Art | Psychology | ||
| History | Villainy | ||
| Language and Literature |
Foxbury Institute degrees and organisations
| Distinguished Degrees | Other Degrees | Organisations | Organisation theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biology | Art History | The Brainiacs | Mental skills |
| Computer Science | Communications | Bot Savants | Robotics skill |
| Economics | Culinary Arts | Foxbury Spirit Squad | General Focused on school pride and the sports team |
| Physics | Drama | ||
| Psychology | Fine Art | ||
| Villainy | History | ||
| Language and Literature |
How to get a degree in The Sims 4 university
By sending your Sim to university, you'll likely want them to achieve the highest grades and get a good degree. Degrees can help give your Sim a big boost in the career of their choice. The rest of this guide will be focused on what you need to do to get good grades.
Choosing whether to live on or off campus
This might seem like a rather arbitrary decision to make, but choosing whether or not to live with other Sims on campus or living on your Sim's own can make all the difference between graduating with distinction or flunking their class entirely.
Living on their own is a good option for your Sims. They won't be distracted by messy roommates, and will have access to everything at any time they want. There's also the fact that you won't need to waste time travelling to the University Commons to get food, and the fact you can designate your Sim's home with the Study Spot lot trait to help your Sims do better in class. It's not impossible for your Sims to ace their tests in shared accommodation, but it is significantly harder to juggle a social life and intense studying.
However, there are some advantages to living on campus. You can arrive to class early, ensuring that a late mark doesn't affect your grade. Living on campus is particularly useful if you're trying to get the Academic aspirations, as being on campus to attend guest lectures and using the research archive machine can help greatly.
A decent compromise might be to put your Sims into smaller residential units for the two universities: namely Maritime Manor for Foxbury Institute or Darkwing House for the University of Britechester. This option is sort of the best of both worlds. You'll have a computer and a kitchen on-site, as well as a reduced likelihood of sharing space with a messy Sim. But the main advantage is that you're still on campus, so you should be able to attend class early.
Managing your Sim's course load
As Jack Torrance in The Shining wrote repeatedly on his typewriter: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Working your Sims too hard can burn them out, so you need to strike a good balance of courses and other activities.
For every semester, your Sim has the option to take a maximum of four classes. They can either take up to four core classes, or a mixture of up to three core classes and an elective. You can choose to take fewer classes in a semester, but your Sim will stay in university for a longer time before graduating.
If you want to strike a good balance between classes, I highly recommending sticking to two core classes and a single elective: a total of three classes per semester. However, this will take 20 in-game days, or four whole terms - your Sim's entire young adulthood period - to complete. You can graduate as an adult, or you can use the relevant The Sims 4 cheats, or the Potion of Youth aspiration reward to slow down the ageing process until you graduate.
All these classes count towards your Sim's degree, but electives give your Sim a chance to learn a skill that's unrelated to the subject of their degree.
Go to class and be an active participant
Put simply, your Sim must attend every single class to get straight A's. Your Sim must also be punctual, arriving on time for every class. One of the few advantages to living on campus is that Sims can get to class early. They'll stand outside the lecture rooms holding their notebooks and may even use that time to finish their homework.
The other thing that will affect your Sim's grades is their current mood. Try to ensure that they're not distracted, or even in a bad mood. If they need a quick boost to their emotions, have them pack snacks or grab a snack from the coffee cart between classes.
When in classes, your Sim has multiple options. I highly recommend that you should choose to either actively listen or take notes if you want a high grade. This does have the side effect of reducing your Sim's fun need at a faster rate than if you attend class normally.
Your Sim does have other options such as sleeping in class, leaving early, or chatting with students, but this can hurt your Sim's grades.
Doing homework
After enrolling into university, your Sim will get a homework book that they'll stash in their inventory. This little book is a key item to getting high grades.
Your Sim will be set homework to be handed in to every class session your Sim attends. This includes homework set before the first classes of term, so your Sim will have homework from the moment you enrol.
Increasing your Sim's Research and Debate skill helps them finish their homework quickly, so if you have a spare moment, try to spend some time increasing this skill. Learn more about them in our The Sims 4 skills guide.
Completing coursework
Throughout each term, your Sim will also need to complete coursework. These come in three varieties:
- Presentations
- Term papers
- Final exams
I cannot stress enough the value of getting your term papers and presentations done before each new term starts. By doing this, you'll have some free time to spend on boosting your Sim's fun meter, since actively listening or taking notes during lectures will reduce the fun meter harshly. Your Sim will also have more time to dedicate to extra studying through the computer.
After completing the last day of classes and finishing your assignments for each term, your Sim will be shown their final grade for that term after a few hours.
How to prepare presentations
When a term starts, you may find a presentation in your Sim's inventory. This is an empty green board that needs to be completed before submitting. To work on it, simply drag the item out of your Sim's inventory and place it on their lot.
The first step is to complete all the information on the board. Once this is done, you'll want to organise the board and refine the information to create a better quality presentation. If your Sim can call upon other Sims to get feedback, they can help refine it further.
After this is complete, make sure you practice your presentation at least once. You can practice it more times to increase your charisma skill, but it only needs to be done once to get the top grade.
Once you're satisfied that you've done all you can to make the presentation a great one, you'll need to present it. Your presentation can only take place between 8am and 4pm on weekdays. You must also present it before the final day of classes for that term. Click on the project, either where you placed it or in your inventory, and select "Give Presentation" to present it. It'll take two in-game hours to finish giving your presentation.
How to write term papers
All your Sim needs to write a term paper is a computer. Term papers can be written from the start of term.
To have your Sim write their paper, go to any computer and under the University tab, you'll find the Coursework section. Your Sim will then spend a few hours writing the paper, though it can be done in more than one sitting. Don't be tempted to submit a plagiarised term paper as you won't get the top grades for it. There is also a risk of getting caught and suspended for doing so.
Once your Sim has written the first draft of the paper, keep editing the term paper until you get a notification to say that you won't be able to make the paper any better. You could keep editing the paper to improve your knowledge, but this is a waste of valuable time.
You can then safely submit your paper. If you want to see how good it is while you work on it, hover your mouse over the submit button. You'll see a word that indicates the quality of the paper: poor, normal, or excellent. If it's excellent, submit that paper!
Much like homework, a high research and debate skill helps your Sim finish their term paper quickly. A good tip here is to plan ahead and have your Sims as teens work on the research and debate skill as they go through school. This can be done cheaply in the home by practising debate in the mirror, which is good because you don’t have to buy an expensive and space consuming debating podium.
How to study for final exams
If your Sim's assignment for the term is to take the final exam, your Sim needs to study all term if you want the top grades. You'll want to study at least twice in each class that has a final exam. There are a few ways to study for an exam:
- The first is to use your computer. In the University section, select "University Coursework", then select "Study".
- Your Sim can also study using the university's research machines in either the university library or in the commons. Select the "study for..." option.
- Finally, your Sim can purchase textbooks from any bookcase or from the kiosks in the quad at the university. Each one costs §700.
When you have multiple final exams coming up, you may need to prioritise which modules you want your Sims to study for. They can email professors about their progress on each module, finding out which ones they're doing better or worse in. There’s no point doing this too early in a term, as the professors will say that it’s too early to tell.
Thanks so much for reading this Sims 4 university guide. With everything in this article, your Sims should be acing their tests and graduating with distinguished degrees! We have other Sims 4 guides available, including our The Sims 4 packs guide that details every single DLC pack. There's also our The Sims 4 skills guide that lists all of the skills in the game, as well as our The Sims 4 cheats guide if you need it.