No. Since I charge 10,000 per student some sims cannot afford to go.
Others, like one of my just played houses has aspirations of setting up a farm so he did not go to college and instead used his inheritance to purchase some farmland and set up a small farm shop.
Others who have aspirations for working for my financial advice offices will go to Uni to earn a degree in economics before they can be hired.
Some who join the military career don't go to college.
Some go to college and end up working as cashiers in the shops.
The owner of the graveyard did not go to college as she inherited the business after her mother died. Had she had more time, college might have been a possibility as it was however the option was taken away from her.

It all depends on what I think the sim would want. Since I don't think there's anything wrong with working the shop floor some of my sims are content to live on that small wage also.

Not particularly, but I usually only send those sims I feel that I'll be continuing the family with.

I don't send all of my teens to university/college.

First off, the teen has to roll the want to go (or a fear of not going). If they don't have the want when they're due to age to adult, they don't get to go. If they do, then it depends on whether their family can afford to send them. College (where the sim remains in the main 'hood as a YA) costs $5,000 and university (where the sim goes to one of the vacation destinations to attend university there) costs $20,000. Due to the way the game and the mods that I use to make studying "abroad" possible work the sim/family also has to own a vacation home at the destination where they are going to study. So university works out pretty expensive!

Once they become YA's my students only study skills or attend classes/do group research/write assignments or term papers if they have the want to do so (or a related want or fear, like a fear of failing the semester or a want to make the Dean's list). So a lot of my YA's end up dropping out of college/university, even if they are willing and able to become students in the first place.

I use mods to make university/college shorter - the whole thing is made up of four semesters, each of which is 48 hours. As they get some time after graduation, the whole thing takes 9 days and sims attend between the ages of 20 and 29. Teens who don't go to college/university just become adults instead and do the usual adult things, possibly including serving in the military, depending on whether or not the 'hood that I'm playing has military service (and sometimes on gender, in some of my 'hoods only the male sims have to serve in the military). Military service takes place from age 20 - 27, so slightly shorter than college/university - and it also comes with a risk of death or "disability", so some wealthy families send their sons abroad to "study" for a fake degree, so that they don't have to complete military service.

I love how detailed your game is, lauratje! I've never played with university having a cost, but it's something I've considered doing. In the end I decided that for right now that's part of life that I didn't want simulated especially because it makes the game more complicated when I have to remember to take away money. I think it really would add a nice challenge for people who can remember those types of things though!

Almost all. I have a deadly-flu mod, so epidemics sweep my hood fairly often. I hurry YAs through uni, though, so it's quicker in a sense than waiting for them to go to the end of their teen stage.

Thank you :-) I must admit, though, I haven't actually played for ages. Possibly months? I really want to get back into it but I've been struggling with anxiety and possible depression recently and I think that may be affecting my motivation and enjoyment of things. I play with a lot of details/rules so it takes a while for me to get a neighbourhood set up, and that seems to be stopping me from playing - but if I try to play a simple neighbourhood with no/fewer rules, so that I can set it up quickly and start playing, I just don't enjoy it!

I like having a cost for college/university and I've been doing it for so long I couldn't possibly forget about it any more! :-) In the beginning it took some remembering, though. One thing that I forgot to mention is how scholarships work - for college students (who have to pay $5,000 in fees and may live with their families as a YA) any earned scholarships get subtracted from their tuition fees, and if they earn over $5,000 of scholarships (Georgia Newson did once, she's my only one so far, though) they get the extra money as cash. For university students scholarships are partly "entry requirements" - they must have the good grades one to be able to attend university, and they don't get given the money for that scholarship - and other scholarships are given to them as cash rather than automatically deducted from their tuition fees (as, generally, if a family is sending their kid to university they can afford to pay the tuition fees with no problems, and the scholarship money is more likely to be "spending money" for the YA whilst they're studying abroad.) Oh, and if YA's who attend college live in a dorm they have to pay fees for that, too. No free accommodation (with bills and food included) for students in my game! And there may be other costs for college students as well. For example, in the 'hood that I'm currently setting up the college will be located downtown rather than in the actual town, so all YA's who are studying at the college but living in the main 'hood will have to pay $100 per semester for a "student bus pass" to allow them to get to their classes and final exams (unless they have access to a car which I can pretend they're using to get there). That'll still be cheap, though, as usually it would cost $100 for an adult/YA return bus ticket to go downtown ($50 for a child/teen/retired elder), or $500 for a return trip by taxi.

I've had a quick look at my longest-played neighbourhood (which I no longer play, for various reasons) and these are the percentages of how many sims go to college and university, as well as how many actually graduated. The "went to college/university" figures don't include sims who start the game as YA's. The "graduated" figures don't include sims who were still YA's when I stopped playing the neighbourhood. The total number of sims who aged to YA/adult during play and hence are counted for the percentages is 47.

Went To College: 55% (26 sims)
Went To University: 11% (5 sims)
Faked Going To University (To Avoid Military Service): 4% (2 sims)
Did Not Go To College/University: 30% (14 sims)
Graduated From College: 50%
Graduated From University: 100%

Goodness, no. My favourite thing in the game is variety so there is very little that I do with "all" my sims.

I also tend to find college a chore. It's better now I'm using cyjon's mod.

In my hoods there are grade boundaries for college, different majors unlock different careers (and in some hoods, different majors are grade-locked) and I absolutely do not help them along. They will have to roll wants or autonomously study. I don't worry about grades before application because I prefer to let them drop out if they suck, and some sims can work hard and pull their skills up to the required place, whereas others have an easy ride because they put the work in before.

It's typical that working class sims are not expected to go to university but might if they are particularly studious or they have an ambition which requires it. And it's typical that middle class+ sims are expected to go, but some might skip it if they are particularly rebellious or suit a more vocational path. It all depends what they have going on at the time.

I send all the teens I like. The ones with futures, at least.

No, not all go. I think out of the twelve Kraemer kids about 4-5 will go to university, and that's mostly dependant on their LTW. The rest move out when they turn 18. Richer families like the Lyndhursts send all their kids to university, regardless of their life dreams. Before I switched to normal aging I did charge for university -- $2500 a year for a bachelor's degree (total $10 000), $3500 a year for a master's (total $7000) and $5000 a year for a doctorate (total $20 000) -- and if a sim has a LTW that needs a doctorate (such as Natural Science), they spent 10 years and $37 000 getting said degree. Of course, the higher pay in such careers made getting a doctorate a very good option.

I really think I need to rejig/restart my requirements to go to university. At the moment I'm more determining on a case-by-case basis for everyone that's not a Wegner or Lyndhurst.

Apologize for the necro, but I find this the thread I feel for my urgent call of help. I have kind of this dilemma:

My current neighborhood has the very first and only teen. I do wish to send all teens to college, but I'm not how practical that be considering 90% of the citizens of the main hood will be unemployed entrepreneurs or employed to one. I might have one household that through generation will have the legacy of "find and apply a career", being the only family in the neighborhood that unlike the rest don't live on home lots or business. I can't think of a good criteria why all teens should go to colleges (the day when their about to transition to adulthood).

Self-made entrepreneurs all long to send their kids to college. It's one of the things they work for. Think of the connections their kids will have! The fresh new ideas they'll bring back to the business!

In my present hood, (Tinsel Town) all the kids can go to college if they roll the want for it. So far, I've had only a couple refuse as of yet, and they'll probably be coerced by peer pressure to do so.
The first generation sweated long and hard for this to happen, and if they don't go, they'll become unemployed bums. In that spectrum of society, that's an ultimate no-no, and one to be avoided at all costs. We're talking social ladder, people!

Of course that doesn't mean they'll be able to afford it, so some of them will be taking out loans, others will have Mom & Dad pay for it. In once instance, one student to be will have her parents endow the college with enough funds to make sure she's accepted...

Oh, and that college in real life should cost as little as it does in my game-$20,000 per pixel for 4 years. Still, the families sometimes struggle to get the money together to send their offspring. Only the very wealthiest can afford that with one check. Those who have 3 or 4 children are sometimes hard-pressed to find the money. $80,000 is a decent sum of money..

I don't think I've ever had a teen who didn't roll the want to go to college, and most of it have that locked by the time I send them. So far I haven't had to have anyone skip college due to lack of funds, but there were a couple near misses.

I do get some that don't want to go, but that is more about interpretation. Uni is for all sims so long as they a) have the money b) have the marks c) have the desire to go. Middle class and wealthier kids are pretty much guaranteed, although I've had a few accidental pregnancies stop a sim going to uni, but that's not as common. For poorer sims, if they graduate with the marks and the right personality type and it fits them, then off they go! If not, as soon as they roll a want for a particular job then off they go to that. I like for it to vary depending on the sim and their individual circumstances, so there's no hard and fast rule. Sometimes poor sims work really hard at school and do a great job and get a bunch of scholarships and go. Other times, wealthier sims are lazy and don't make the marks, or they're pleasure sims and it's a miracle they even finished school - it really depends.

Sims have to have the want rolled and at least a B grade.(though Sim State might let you in with a C if you have a skill badge or two to show you've made some effort.) Once you're there, you have to stay above a certain GPA or you'll be sent back home to your irate parents for not working hard enough and partying too much! I like Sims to actually make it worth my effort playing them through uni by working hard. Some sims just don't want to go, and that's totally okay too. I have a mod to stop the crying about not going to uni.

I also have the 2 days to a semester mod which helps a ton!!

I do just so they can get a higher level job after college (and get closer to acheiving their LTW if it's career related), and so if I don't have a romantic partner for them yet, I can browse the Dormies to see who I can pair with my teens.

I don’t.
I charge 10.000 per teen, which for big families are hard to manage.
I had a sim recently who aged up to adult, since his mom and step dad didn’t have the money, but he still tries to run for mayor. If nothing else is he still trying.
But richer families may send their eldest children to college if they only have money to send 1 or 2.
And the totally rich send all their children so O3O

I think that's true, but they themselves can be the ones that drop out of college to get on with their businesses. I know Bill Gates left university to start Microsoft. If he'd stayed on to graduate, he'd probably have been too late. And I think Steve Jobs did the same.

So far I haven't sent any teens to university, but since last year I have Land Grant University attached to Baldrair Bluffs. So far I've only played a handful of students I made in Create a Student in addition to Peni's pre-mades, but I hope to send the first teens soon.

I don't think I'll ever send all my teens to college though. It's partly an age thing. When I was a teenager, most boys and girls left school at 15 and got a job. Some took apprenticeships, but they still got paid (rather low wages) for that. University was something of a special treat for the extra bright who'd done exceptionally well at school. I find it hard to get my head round the idea of everyone going to college/university. I think in Real Life the relationship between education and employment is complex: qualifications help you to get the job in the first place, but thereafter further advancement depends far more on your ability and personality. So I won't get one of those mods that limit the higher job levels to graduates. Because able, motivated non-graduates can and do out-perform graduates in the promotion stakes. In the other hand I like the idea of education for its own sake. In my ideal university like-minded Knowledge Sims will (possibly helped by a glass or two of beer) hang out with each other into the small hours, discussing the Meaning of Life. But no doubt there will be some Fortune Sims who think a degree will help them get on in life. And maybe even a few Romance Sims, who just fancy the idea of studying drama.

I want all my Sims to enjoy their lives, and I'd like them to achieve some sort of self-fulfilment. But I don't think that means all of them going to university. I have the mods in place to stop them getting an "uneducated" bad memory or fearing not going to college. Some of my teens I really can't envisage at university: Jack Gill says that he and Ravi are already "students at the University of Life". By which he means that, instead of going to school, they spend their days at all-day nightclubs.

One thing I'll guarantee: There will never be tuition fees in my game. Because I think they're an abomination.

I try to not send them all to uni. But I just can't do it, I feel too guilty when they get a bad memory from it. That said, if they have absolutely no interest, I will not make them go.

I tend not to make teens do homework unless they roll a want for it or get a snow day (or sometimes on weekends, if they're Knowledge sims who've been so focused on skills that they forgot their homework), and since Inteen requires a C rather than a D for matriculation, quite a few don't qualify. I also don't force them to study once they're there, so the majority don't graduate. Also, although university is free in some hoods, in others sims have to pay; of the latter, some have student loans but others don't, so some sims can't go because they can't afford it.

Prior to Inteen and Cyjon's loan jar, university was always free and pretty much everybody went, though in many cases I just moved them in and out again the day before they became adults, so I wouldn't have to deal with the tantrums. Even my Neanderthals had a semester or two at university, which came immediately after childhood and which I interpreted as a coming-of-age camp; they focused on fire safety and gardening (everyone), parenting and cooking (females), and mechanical and fishing (males), as well as any other non-skill subjects, such as anger management, that appealed to them or seemed necessary. It was the only time they were allowed to use books, which were interpreted as lessons from Elders.

I only recall two sims who never rolled a want to go: Ginger Newson (twice), and Tommy Ottomas of Sheffield, who apparently chose not to go because he didn't want to leave his beloved cat behind. They grew up quite happily, without any tantrums.

I rarely actually work with universities. Especially not in my current hood, Crwmplegwaelod, because it's medieval. Don't see the point, really, and most of my simmies are quite poor.

Yes, I send every single one of them. My main neighborhood is upper middle to upper class, so it makes sense for all of them to go--some of them because they genuinely want to, others because of story. The Fortune/Popularity Teen goes because his parents want him to be in top shape for taking his mother's career position as a Senator when he gets back. The Family/Knowledge Teen goes because her aging parents won't be able to take care of her baby sibling for much longer and she wants to be able to provide for her. The Romance/Popularity Teen goes because of the WooHoo opportunities. It all depends on their personality and life story.

I also have student loans to make things more interesting for life after graduation. Can the Fortune/Family adult from a poor background support his family while paying off thousands of Simoleons in student loans?

I haven't had anyone fail out yet thanks to them autonomously doing assignments and research when they visit other Sims, although I've had a few graduate having done the bare minimum.

I just wish EA didn't add the YA stage the way they did. It's the reason why all my Sims have to go to college because, otherwise, younger sims, who do not go to college, would end up being older than older sims who went to college. (Unless, of course, I use the YA College Mod, or play them as adults for four days with aging off... Still, though...) Plus, it extends the length of their lives. :/

I just wish it was a regular life stage. The option of going or not going would seem a lot more apparent to me by then. TBH, they did it better with TS3...

Yes...and no. When my oldest child ages up, his/her younger siblings age up too and everyone goes off to college. As I play them through college, I decide who is my heir and who gets sent back to the student bin.