College vs University

[BrokeDiamond 2]

Are there any functional differences between the college and university in SC4? I'm debating whether or not to keep both or only have the university. Thanks!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Are there any functional differences between the college and university in SC4? I'm debating whether or not to keep both or only have the university. Thanks!

With a large population, I sometimes add a college to the university as a specific faculty. You can rename the building you know.

[BrokeDiamond 2]

Are there any functional differences between the college and university in SC4? I'm debating whether or not to keep both or only have the university. Thanks!

With a large population, I sometimes add a college to the university as a specific faculty. You can rename the building you know.

But do the college and university create different RCI demands or educate different age groups?

[His Divine Hand 244]

I know for certain that the university includes demand cap reliefs and desirability increases, plus if necessary for other rewards that also have cap increases, the city college does not. I believe it has been said that the university has larger age range than the college, but this I am not certain.

[cogeo 960]

Well, this is quite easy to find guys, just open simicity_1.dat in the Reader and use the Navigator tool to find the building exemplars. Did this kind of work and here are the results:

- The two institutions are almost equally efficient economically, ie the number of students they educate vs running costs. The University's plop cost is proportionately much higher. Custom content (downloaded) may be quite or very differently moddded, sometimes chety (eg educate double the students at the same cost), some others simply inconsistently, as many custom content developers make excellent BATs but pay little attention to modding their creations properly.

- The University is more efficient in boosting EQ (30, vs 24 for the College).

- The University raises EQ for more age groups, and for some of them more efficiently too.

- The University lifts demand caps for I-HT, CO$$ and amenities.

- Strangely enough, the University offers slightly fewer jobs!

- The University has Park (boosts R desirability) and Landmark (boosts C desirability) effects, over a radius of 22 tiles, while the College does not.

So there is no question, the University is preferable, so build it as soon as it becomes available and you can afford it (unless you have set other priorities), and don't build more Colleges until it has reached capacity. Don't know if you can affect attendance through funding (ie if you fund the University more and the College less, will students move from the College to the University?), but if yes, it is highly advisable that you do so. The only disadvantage with the University is that it takes a lot of space (12x10), and as it is a big lot it will also suffer from the crime bug; put police nearby, and surround it completely with roads or streets. CAM provides a fix to this bug; if you don't want CAM you can instead try to find and install the fix alone.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Thank you cogeo, that was a very useful post!

[TwnklPeen 3]

I've always found that the university increased demand for High Tech jobs and industrial zones will start building high tech facilities. The college increases the education of the area overall, but doesn't necessarily increase the higher wealth jobs. These are just my observations.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,044]

On 6.10.2023 at 5:08 PM, TwnklPeen said:

I've always found that the university increased demand for High Tech jobs and industrial zones will start building high tech facilities. The college increases the education of the area overall, but doesn't necessarily increase the higher wealth jobs. These are just my observations.

Correct. That's because university gradually increases the education quotient. The more educated people you have, the more demanding the job requirements will be.

Colleges work similarly although some of the users, as evidenced above, suggest they are a little less effective compared to universities. To be absolutely honest, I actually use universities very rarely as they are simply to big to build in some towns. I still achieve high EQs operating on colleges alone... So I think they are quite effective actually, even if they work slower.