Pictured room build credit: me! (The Sims Curator/rachelwolfe)
Active Classes: Your University Course Catalog
Each university in the Get Schooled save file now has a building where you can take active classes! The lecture halls where these active classes are housed are technically small business lots “owned” by professors, to enable you to use the Businesses & Hobbies class system. Since a small business is limited to just four employees counting the owner, and four professors per university seemed a bit low, I have actually divided each lecture hall into two small businesses, one for Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes and one for Tuesday/Thursday classes, so I could have a total of eight professors per university. It is technically possible to visit either of these small businesses at any time, so the MWF vs. TT distinction is entirely voluntary, but it seemed like a good way to split it up and help you remember when to attend your live classes during terms. Here’s a course catalog of what’s on offer where and when:
“The Art of Love: Romance Through the Eyes of Artists” (romance skill)
“The Art of Selling Out: Monetizing Your Craft” (entrepreneur skill. Live class exclusive!)
“Charisma Myths and Mantras” (charisma skill)
“Evidence in Debate Prep” (research & debate skill)
“Flower Arranging Centerpieces” (flower arranging skill)
“The Haunting Pipe Organ” (pipe organ skill)
“Improvisation in Acting” (acting skill)
“Intro to Comedy: Life or Art” (comedy skill)
“Pottery Practicals: Wheely Fun” (pottery skill)
“Raw! Temperature in Cooking” (cooking skill)
“Salvaging for Handiness” (handiness skill)
“Serenading Sims on Violin” (violin skill)
“Trolling Teh Forums for Mischief” (mischief skill)
“Ways to Bake Sponge Cake” (baking skill)
“Writing Fiction… or Are We?” (writing skill)
“Advanced Shower Singing” (singing skill)
“Archaeology and Ancient Simology” (archaeology skill)
“Beyond Selfie Photography” (photography skill)
“Chess Mix: Board Logic” (logic skill)
“Cross-stitch EVERYTHING!” (cross-stitch skill)
“Gourmet Cooking: Tapas Touch” (gourmet cooking skill. Prerequisite: 5 skill points’ worth of lower-division cooking classes)
“Judging Merit: Myth or Meaningful?” (research & debate skill)
“Mixed Ability Mixology” (mixology skill)
“Paranormal Perspectives in Thanatology” (thanatology skill)
“Parenting: Don’t Do That” (parenting skill)
“Piano Sonata Appreciation” (piano skill)
“Selvadoradian Culture and Cuisine” (Selvadoradian culture skill)
“Shred Secrets of the Guitar” (guitar skill)
“Spin, Snag, Swag, Dance” (dancing skill)
“Too Real: Realism Paintings” (painting skill)
“Understanding the Self through Gemology” (gemology skill)
“The Vampire Lore of Garlic” (vampire lore skill)
“XTREME KNITTING” (knitting skill)
“Charisma Times Three” (charisma skill)
“Crossing the DJ Mixing Bassline” (DJ skill)
“Economics 101” (entrepreneur skill. Live class exclusive!)
“Fitness Macros 101” (fitness skill)
“Handiness and Being Handy” (handiness skill)
“History of Dance: Rumbasim” (dance skill)
“Logical Analytics” (logic skill)
“Media Production: Capturing vs. Recording” (media production skill)
“Mischief 101: Playing Hooky” (mischief skill)
“Principles of Diving” (diving skill. Live class exclusive!)
“Programming for Fun” (programming skill)
“Research, Debate, Critical Thinking” (research & debate skill)
“Robotic Dreams of Electric Llamas” (robotics skill)
“A Wellness Bridge: Yoga 101” (wellness skill)
“Change My Mind: Constructing Arguments” (research & debate skill)
“The Chemistry of Juice Fizzing” (juice fizzing skill. Live class exclusive!)
“Color Theory for Painters” (painting skill)
“Ecosystems and Entomology” (entomology skill. Live class exclusive!)
“Introduction to Materials Science” (fabrication skill. Live class exclusive!)
“The Mathematics of 3-D Space” (robotics skill)
“Programming Principles” (programming skill)
“Rocket Science Maneuvers” (rocket science skill. Participate in F.I.’s ambitious project to build a full rocket ship in the building’s atrium!)
“Secret Herbalism Recipes” (herbalism skill)
“Strike a Pose: Photographing Sims” (photography skill)
“Time Out! Parenting In?” (parenting skill)
“Unconventional Gardening” (gardening skill)
“Video Game Strategies” (video gaming)
“Writing Sadness” (writing skill)
Courses labeled “live class exclusive” are skills that the game designers did not provide any rabbithole courses for, so if you want to learn these skills at university, you’ll have to take them at the lecture hall. You’ll notice that some skills are only available live at one university or the other, whereas a few core skills like writing, logic, etc. are taught at both, and some—like research & debate—are taught everywhere every day. Also, there are some skills not taught at either university: things like nectar-making or skiing, for example. As I add worlds, study abroad opportunities, and other schools to this save file, my aim is to ultimately have appropriate spaces to take live classes for every skill in the game, but we’re not there quite yet.
When you first sign up for a new term and get your class schedule, I suggest identifying a good chunk of time when you don’t have any rabbithole classes or org meetings and setting that time aside to take a live class or two. You’ll have to remember it yourself, because it won’t appear in your schedule tab, but it makes university seem way more dynamic!
Of course, there’s also the question of cost. Live classes cost money, as does receiving paid mentoring from professors (which I also recommend you do at these lecture halls). Both universities have price markups—you’re learning from the best, after all—but Foxbury is slightly cheaper than UBrite, at a 50% markup rather than 100% (a Viney League education is truly top dollar!). Since university is laughably cheap in this game by default, I consider the added cost of live classes to be a feature of the save file rather than a drawback. But it does mean you’ll want to save up some money for university and not waste it paying your tuition, room, and board in the usual enrollment process—put those things on a student loan and save your real money for live classes and study abroad fees!
And a final note about the mechanics of these “small businesses”: since there is no way to set “UBrite students” or “Foxbury students” as preferred customers in the small business tab, I have given all NPC and townie university students one of two relatively rare personality traits to use as proxies for being enrolled in a given university. All pre-made Foxbury students have the “Practice Makes Perfect” trait (which causes them to be focused while building skills, which is good for most of the skills taught at Foxbury), while all pre-made UBrite students have the “Idealist” trait, which doesn’t do much aside from give them a certain camaraderie with one another and have them strike a weird pose from time to time—consider this some kind of UBrite school spirit gesture. This enables you to set students of one university or the other as club members or, in this case, preferred customers for the lecture halls, so the other people you’ll see there will be students of the correct university. You don’t need to have these traits yourself as the active household—active households can just visit any business regardless of preferred customer settings. It’s just so your surroundings will make sense.
