Is this something that exists? I'm working on setting up a play-style where 12 sim days equal a year, so 4 sim days equal a semester. I'd like to somehow fit some breaks into the "year," at least between semesters. I could just pause the semester meter for however long I want, but ideally I'd like to have something a little less manual that feels more legitimately a part of gameplay. I'm no modder, so maybe I'm being totally unrealistic here, but I appreciate anyone pointing me in even a kinda-right direction. Thanks!

There's Inge's hack that suspends the timing of semesters (basically what you're describing there): http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2P...s2_Learning.htm

I have that hack though I confess I have never used it. Inge is pretty reliable though.

I'll second maxon's suggestion. You just click on the statue and use the take a break option then the semester timer stops ticking down until you click on the statue to resume classes again. It also works when you have university students outside of the uni subhoods; I have much shorter university terms so I often use it to give students some time off depending on storyline and preference.

@cheekymarie
I agree about Inge's hack for taking a break in a semester, but I want to notify about my Project Realistic Ages: 1 simsday = 1 real month.
I use this setup of 12 sim days equal a year myself (I use that Project Realistic Ages myself).
I also wrote tutorials how to change the lifespan of sims, pets, skills, pregnancy,... yourself.
http://s2idownloads.blogspot.be/p/the-essentials.html
You can find it under the title "lifespan + pregnancyspan"
These are actually the essential mods to the way I play (same as your play-style or at least when it comes to age).
So I hope/think this can really help you.

Thanks, everyone, I should have known Inge would have something like this! I appreciate all the info and tips as well.

Hi all! I have recently downloaded igne's uni break mod and I cannot for the life of me find it in the catalog. I searched under misc > misc and decorative > sculptures. Help in finding this object would be greatly appreciated. Happy simming!

All you have to do is check in SimPE under Object Data which has the yellow folder icon on the left, so its easy to spot.
In there look at catalog sort which for this shows it being in Decorative Outside.
To find the price switch to Raw Data next to catalog sort and click decimal. That says it costs $100.
You can do this for any object you can't find.

If you want to change those, say make it cheap like most other modded objects just change the price to say $1 click commit over to the left then save. If you want to change the place just tick for example misc and decorative sculptures, click commit and save.

Inge's Uni Break mod conflicts with TwoJeffs' No Finals at Night. To fix this, make sure Inge's mod loads LAST (put both mods in the same folder and add one or more Zs in front of Inge's Patch or better yet both Inge files).

I haven't tested to see whether this nullifies No Finals at Night - if it does, you will have to choose which mod you would rather have.

Uni Break mod has a flaw - if you take an affected Sim out to a Community lot at the University, the clock starts running again even though the mod is still set to "on break". Moreover, it starts running for all household members whether they go to the Community lot or not, and they get out of synch.

So it's really only good for stopping time within the dorm, or when you want to round up a group to go somewhere AWAY from the University.

UPDATE: Yes it does nullify No Finals At Night, so you will have to choose. (And I'd rather have No Finals At Night, thank you very much.)