Private School

[svachon 3]

I have an established city of about 300,000 Sims. My in-game private school is over it's 1000 capacity to about 2800. I put in a large private school off the STEX, Robinsden, that has a capacity of 1600. Now the new private school show students at 10k, way over capacity. Why does it do this?? I only see my in-game private school go down to 1300 and other HS's don't seem to be effected. I've tried in different cities with similar results.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have an established city of about 300,000 Sims. My in-game private school is over it's 1000 capacity to about 2800. I put in a large private school off the STEX, Robinsden, that has a capacity of 1600. Now the new private school show students at 10k, way over capacity. Why does it do this?? I only see my in-game private school go down to 1300 and other HS's don't seem to be effected. I've tried in different cities with similar results.

How many private schools do you have? The game will give you up the three rewards of them. I usually have heavy public education, but I do get them, and I haven't really noticed them overflowing enrollment because there is no alert (as far as I know). Most private schools in real life have heavy waiting lists.

[cogeo 960]

I have a question here, if you add a public school (with its coverage are overlapping with that of the private), will this relieve the congested private one?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have a question here, if you add a public school (with its coverage are overlapping with that of the private), will this relieve the congested private one?

Don't know. If you are really interested, ask the game. (Test it.)

[jacksunny 741]

Now the new private school show students at 10k, way over capacity. Why does it do this??

Perhaps it is because the new private school has a larger radius than the Maxis one. If so, more people would be going to it. You basically have 2 options:

1. Build more schools. This is more expensive, but will improve the desirability of your city.

2. Reuce school bus funding. Will save you some money, but the citizens might not be too happy.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If I was in this situation, I would build a large high school and/or a city college within a block.

[cogeo 960]

I have noticed that plopping a private school does not reduce attendance in public schools! Quite lousy. This means that the R$$$ get better education (the EQ boost is 30, as compared to 24 for the public ones), but there are some unknown points:

- In a R$$$-only area, is it OK to not have public schools, ie will ALL R$$$ kids go to the private school?

- If you have public school coverage as well, does EQ accumulate (30 + 24), or sims just get the better option (although you are still charged, wasting your money)?

- My previous question again, if you add a public school (with its coverage are overlapping with that of the private), will this relieve the congested private one? If not, and given that the private school appears to not reappear if it is bulldozed, it would rather be best to plop them only after the R$$$ area has been developed to the maximumu population intended. But even this may be hard to calculate correctly, as population age, and consequently school attendance changes all the time.

I do not have an adequately big R$$$ area (ie a proper testbed) to perform the necessary testing, so please post here your experiences.

[goodyou 0]

I would build a large high school and/or a city college within a block.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I would build a large high school and/or a city college within a block.

And the point of repeating my prior post is?

[Nielsen 10]

How come I don't see a thumnail for the private school in mayor mode? I assumed that it would be visible as an education facility or reward building or is that wrong? I was offered to build a private school once but I didn't place it and now I can't find it.

  Edited June 12, 2012 by Nielsen  

[z1 566]

If you no longer meet the requirements for a private school, the offer will be silently withdrawn. For this reason, it's generally good to take the offers when they're made.

[Nielsen 10]

If you no longer meet the requirements for a private school, the offer will be silently withdrawn. For this reason, it's generally good to take the offers when they're made.

Ok, so certain reward buildings are not listed permanently as those greyed out ones that you do not meet the requirements for?

[z1 566]

Ok, so certain reward buildings are not listed permanently as those greyed out ones that you do not meet the requirements for?

That's correct. This probably has something to do with the fact that there are multiple private school awards. And although there are only officially three, usually a fourth shows up if you qualify for it.

[Nielsen 10]

Is the private school fix recommendable? As suggested by the OP, they easily go over capacity and I have read, specifically for the similar opera hall issue, that over-capacities have a negative impact on cities. So the real question, which might be difficult to answer, is if this over-capacity problem at private schools was intended by Maxis as a counterweight to the positive impact created by e.g other educational facilities, thus making it desirable to earn the additional private schools with higher capacities? Not sure whether I should get this mod or not as I try to avoid those which could be considered as cheats rather than fixes.

This is the fix I am referring to:

That's correct. This probably has something to do with the fact that there are multiple private school awards. And although there are only officially three, usually a fourth shows up if you qualify for it.

That sounds like a resonable assumption, I just noticed that it's the same for churches and graveyards which also are gifted more than just once.

  Edited June 13, 2012 by Nielsen  

[z1 566]

Is the private school fix recommendable?

Yes.

As suggested by the OP, they easily go over capacity and I have read, specifically for the similar opera hall issue, that over-capacities have a negative impact on cities. So the real question, which might be difficult to answer, is if this over-capacity problem at private schools was intended by Maxis as a counterweight to the positive impact created by e.g other educational facilities, thus making it desirable to earn the additional private schools with higher capacities? Not sure whether I should get this mod or not as I try to avoid those which could be considered as cheats rather than fixes.

This is definitely a bug fix, just like the Opera House fix, not a cheat. The fact that Maxis gave no way to fix this, or even let you know that it's happening (unlike with regular schools) is strong evidence that it's a bug. Also, use of custom content often results in higher population densities, which would require higher capacity schools. Theoretically, you could add more private schools, but there are a limited number we're allowed to use.

As for the fix itself, you also might want to consider which is identical to the original private school implementation in appearance in that it doesn't use sliders. (These are private schools anyway, so they don't appear in the budget.) The lack of sliders also prevents the slider CTD bug, although you should still not mix different types of private schools in the same city. It is, of course, a complete coincidence that this sliderless version of this fix was created by me.

  Edited June 14, 2012 by z1  

[Nielsen 10]

This is definitely a bug fix, just like the Opera House fix, not a cheat. The fact that Maxis gave no way to fix this, or even let you know that it's happening (unlike with regular schools) is strong evidence that it's a bug. Also, use of custom content often results in higher population densities, which would require higher capacity schools. Theoretically, you could add more private schools, but there are a limited number we're allowed to use.

Yeah good point, my theory didn't make much sense anyway.

As for the fix itself, you also might want to consider which is identical to the original private school implementation in appearance in that it doesn't use sliders. (These are private schools anyway, so they don't appear in the budget.) The lack of sliders also prevents the slider CTD bug, although you should still not mix different types of private schools in the same city. It is, of course, a complete coincidence that this sliderless version of this fix was created by me.

I actually think I prefer that version because, as you suggest, sliders don't make much sense on private properties. Thanks for the link and for creating it! By the way, why shouldn't I mix different types of private schools in the same city? I assume that you aren't reffering to those 3-4 private schools players can receive?

  Edited June 16, 2012 by Nielsen  

[z1 566]

By the way, why shouldn't I mix different types of private schools in the same city?

Mixing schools (or any other civic buildings) that have the same ID but different capacities can confuse SC4. This can result in other schools (which have sliders) slowly gaining or losing capacity over time. I haven't verified that this happens with the sliderless replacement schools, but to be safe, I wouldn't mix different types.

I assume that you aren't reffering to those 3-4 private schools players can receive?

That's right, I'm not.

[Nielsen 10]

Mixing schools (or any other civic buildings) that have the same ID but different capacities can confuse SC4. This can result in other schools (which have sliders) slowly gaining or losing capacity over time. I haven't verified that this happens with the sliderless replacement schools, but to be safe, I wouldn't mix different types.

I'll keep that in mind.