Friday 27 April 2012

Getting into university in Sullivan

For the whole time I've been playing Sullivan, I've been using the same system to decide which Sims will and won't be admitted into university. It's a fairly simple system. If a Sim earns 4 scholarships and has the want to go, they go and pay full tuition. If they earn 6 scholarships and have the want, they go and they pay half tuition. If they earn 8 and have the want, they go and tuition is completely waived.

I've been dissatisfied with that for quite a while though. It's not really realistic. In real life, I somehow gained entrance into university without earning any scholarships at all and I'd wager that's true of many of you as well. I wanted a new system but hadn't been motivated enough to develop anything. 


Last week, I read Starr's amazing post about her SPAT scores (she also posted an update and simplification several days later) and I was suddenly inspired to sit down and hammer out my own system. Starr was in turn inspired by Laurel Crossing, so credit should definitely go to her as well. 

I've decided to call it the Sullivan Aptitude Score (referred to from now on as the SAS). Calculating it requires nothing more complicated than addition, because I am a maths moron and avoid it wherever possible. 

This is how the SAS is calculated:



Hobbies - Sims earn 1 SAS point per enthusiasm point in any hobby. If they max out a hobby (whether it is their One True Hobby or not), they earn 1 additional point. 


Skills - Sims earn 1 SAS point per skill point in each skill. If they max out a skill, they earn one additional point. 


Grades - Sims earn 10 SAS points for an A grade, 5 SAS points for a B grade and 3 SAS points for a C grade. This will be checked only once, on the last day I play them before sending them off to university (or aging them up to adult, if they don't get in)


Badges - How come Sims can't get scholarships from badges? Some of them are really hard work to earn, so it seemed only right that teens who go through that should be rewarded in some way. With that in mind, a Gold Badge earns a Sim 10 SAS points, they earn 5 SAS points for a Silver and 3 SAS points for a Bronze. 

Extra skills - "Extra skills" are the ones added to the book case with Free Time and Apartment Life - Parenting, Fire Safety, Anger Management, Lifelong Happiness, Physiology and Couples Counseling. Sims will earn 1 SAS point for each extra skill they study. 

Teen jobs - If a Sim maxes out their teen career, they earn 1 SAS point. 

All of these things can be checked in your Sims' skill, hobby or memory panel. You can check it all in SimPE but I recommend doing it in game, because the badges and extra skills are sort of hidden away a little and not in any of the main tabs. 

Once I've added up all those points, I have the final SAS. I've decided on a few different ways to use the SAS:

1) As mentioned above, to decide who does and doesn't gain entrance into university
2) For admission into post-graduate university courses.
3) As the deciding factor for awarding the Governor's Grant, where there is more than one suitable candidate (as there is this round).

In the future, I may use a certain SAS score as a prerequisite for running for Governor, or for a position on the Hood Council. But that's not decided yet.

For university admission though, I've decided that a Sim will need a score of 40 to be able to enrol. If they manage to score 55, they will get half price tuition. If they achieve a score of 70, the Scholar's Grant EA scholarship plus consistent As during high school, they will earn a free ride.

As an example, here's one of Sullivan's resident brains, Declan.

Declan is a Knowledge/Family Sim and under my old system, he earned half-price tuition, because he earned six scholarships. Let's see how he does with the SAS.

Uh, not too fantastic on the hobby front, scoring a measly one point! I find it really hard for Sims to keep their science enthusiasm up. He also reached the top of his teen career, so that's 1 more point and he learnt Physiology and Fire Safety, so he gets two more points for that. So far, he's got 4.

Declan didn't earn any badges, so we'll ignore that category. Grades though? Awesome. He has an A+, so he gets 10 points. He is quite highly skilled and has a total of 44 skill points, which gives him another 44 SAS points. In total, that gives him an SAS of 58, meaning he'll pay only half-tuition. Just like it worked out under the old system.

I've checked the SAS scores for my Grade 12s, as well as all my college freshmen (as I write this, I haven't played them yet so they're exactly as they were on their last day of high school). The lowest score of these 10 kids was Austin Carmody, with 37. The highest was Justin Moretti with 64. Normally with that score, he'd pay half-tuition but seeing he's financially disadvantaged, his high SAS will award him the Governor's Grant this year and he won't pay anything at all.

Basically, Sims who didn't get into college under the old system wouldn't get in under this one either. Sims who did well under the old system still do well with the SAS. This works for me. I didn't really want to make it harder for Sims to get in as I'm satisfied with that. I just wanted to change up the method of how they actually enter.

I'm still reserving the right to change the entrance requirements or the way the SAS is calculated, if I play a bit more and find it's not working so well. But I think this might do the trick for me.

I'm happy to answer any questions or comments, as always. :)

22 comments:

  1. Looks great, for some reason I thought Declan would have earned a free ride

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    1. I thought Declan might be a candidate for a free ride too but nope. Finn didn't get one either and he was another I thought might. They're very smart but not that smart, I guess, lol!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. This makes so much sense. I've been trying to figure out a new system for Wellington but I've pretty much scratched all gameplay planning for the time being.

    Wonderful system. Now, can I steal it?! LOL

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    1. You've been having too much trouble with your game lately. I'm hoping you have some more lucky soon. But yep, you can steal! I wouldn't put all this up if I didn't want people to use it. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. Your system is really great.I'm excited, though I think I'm too new of a reader to be this happy.Anyway, this sounds like a great idea and much more realistic.I didn't fully understand the other way even though it seemslike a good idea, but I definitely think this way is a bit superior and more realistic.

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    1. Heh, you can be as happy as you like, no matter how long you've been reading! I'm pretty excited to start using it and to expand it. The old system was not confusing to me (but then, I developed it) but this new system has many more ways in which I can use it. Figuring out who gets the Governor's Grant, for example, as well as making the post-graduate courses harder to get into. I haven't decided on the details of the latter yet though.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. I really need to do this lol. I currently have NOTHING set in place as far as how I decide who goes to uni and who doesn't, but this has inspired me to take a look at planning something out. I'm sure I'll borrow some of this if you don't mind :)

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    1. Last time I read one of your uni updates, I was wondering how you decided! Now I know, LOL. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with and feel free to borrow as many of these ideas as you like. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. That is a neat system. Maybe the student who gets the highest SAS could be the valedictorian.

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    1. Ah, there's an idea. I don't know what it would mean for game play but I might at least announce who got the highest SAS in January birthdays. I'd call it "dux" though, as that's the equivalent of valedictorian. Thanks for the idea; I'll have to think about that.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. I already said it before, but I really love this system!
    After reading Starr's post I was looking at redoing mine as well, but my thinkingprocess wasn't as far when you posted this one!

    I tried it on some of my teens, and I was surpised they all got in, one of them even got a 64, which was something I couldn't believe!

    Thank you so much for sharing this!

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    1. I started working on it the same day I saw Starr's post, so this has been on my mind for well over a week now! I was glad to finally get it up here.

      Interesting to see how it worked out for your teens. If teens I can't picture getting into college start getting in, I might consider raising the admission requirement. That's what really works for me about this system. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. I already said at N99 but that's a very good system you adapted from Starr which was adapted from LC. I'll need to reread the thread at N99 but you all gave me some good ideas to change up my system, too. I might have to wait a while because I can't remember if my teens' skills were inflated when I started blogging the hood. I know I randomized a bunch of my pre-made sims' skills, so I don't want to set the bar too high for the future generations.

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    1. Yeah, if you randomised skills, that might be something you want to consider with this. But the good thing is that seeing it would be your system, there's nothing to stop you from lowering the bar for your future teens if you find things are much too hard. These numbers I've gone with are not set in stone either. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  8. Interesting! I'm going to start thinking about the issue of deciding who goes to college and who doesn't as I develop a "university" for my own neighborhood. :)

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    1. I'm looking forward to reading about how you TS3ers make university work in your hoods! With no EA university system in the game, you'd be starting from scratch, really, which has advantages and disadvantages.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  9. Ok! I think this looks great! My brain is kind of fuzzing over as I read, for some reason the first set of photos aren't loading for me, says "error". Probably just me, wouldn't be the first time, but just in case, thought I'd throw it out there. I'm going to try your system out with my sims, but have it be less difficult, because well, I suck at homework for my sim kids, and with the harder grade hacks, I am having a horrible time getting my sim kids to get higher than a B, and that's just being too nice to myself, I have a lot of C's right now, even with kids with skills, hobby's, great moods, and doing homework. I'm a lousy sim-mom. I am going to try this though with Hadley and the other upper class kids.

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    1. The pics are loading for me, even after a hard refresh, so maybe your browser just burped or something! There's no info in the pics anyway - I just put them in to break up the text a little. :)

      With the Harder Grades hack, they each have a core skill they should be improving. I've never figured it out with children but with teens, it's usually the skill associated with their hobby, I believe. Josh, for example, is a Fitness Sim, and he was getting pretty crappy grades until I had Max take him out for a game of basketball to earn some body points. So that's something to try, if you want some star students. ;) And you'll have to let me know how this system works out for your teens!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  10. I took a minute this morning to see how Hadley and Lainey did with this scoring system. And I think I need to lower the minimum scores for my sims. I just don't get them the skills they need as much. Hadley and Lainey are both hard workers in the academic field, and they both just barely skated in. Where I would have thought with all the scholarships that Lainey is receiving, that she would have been eligible for the half-tuition.

    Hadley scored a 45, and Lainey a 43 (because she's not as well-rounded with hobbies/job/badges). I think I'll take your system but lower it to 30 minimum for entrance, because I think of mine as a state school anyway, and then 50 for half-tuition, and 60 for full-pay. Otherwise I don't think I'll have any college students, other than Lainey, Hadley, and Alice. The rest are all pretty mediocre.

    Thanks for writing this all up! It was fun to see how mine rank!

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    1. Sounds like a good plan! You definitely need to adjust these things for your own play style, or else it won't be any fun. I'd hate to have no college students!

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  11. Oh, you know Sims CAN earn scholarships from their badges? :D http://forum.jfade.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=444

    Don't mind me - just randomly catching up, btw. ;)

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    1. Oooh, you know, I think I saw that a long time ago and forgot about it! Thanks for reminding me; I'm definitely going to use that!

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