What's wrong with my school grade?

[Kieren Barnett 76]

One of the number one priorities I have with my cities is making the best education system I can. Currently, the city I'm working on is doing well by what I can see, but I'm not getting some rewards for the education system.

 

Firstly, my two private schools are overcrowded, but for some reason I'm not getting the third one unlocked. The only requirement that I can put it down to is that my school grade isn't at 90, because my population needs far surpass those needed. That said, look at attached images for the stats, my education system seems to already by putting in the good grades.

 

Similarly, I haven't got the university unlocked either. I have unlocked the university in cities much smaller than the one I'm working on, so I'm confused about this. Does anyone have any suggestions why I'm not managing to unlock these education facilities?

 

The stats:

Junior sports and pro reading ordinances in place.

City population above 180k, I'm not sure of the income splits, but it's a good mix.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

if your EQ isn't up to the required level, there must be other factors.  What does the menu entry say about it?  Generally speaking, to get that third school you need to have conditions similar to those needed for CO$$$.  Lots of parks, trees, broad streets, and enough Sims.

[APSMS 1,893]

Hmm. I'm not sure what the issue may be, but as a suggestion I would use the private school fix (that adds sliders and a nominal cost) to private schools so that the overcrowding isn't as severe. This is similar in function to the opera house fix, and of course to avoid phantom sliders you'll have to delete all your private schools everywhere before you use it, but IMO it's worth it.

 

The conditions for the private school remain the same. Of course, if I wanted the 3rd private school that badly, I'd probably try the u don't deserve it cheat to see what happened, but if that's not your play style, I understand. Although, then again, with the fix, the 3rd private school is often not necessary for me, what with the expanded capacity and low cost. Usually the first two cover the rich areas well enough, and the rest of the city is destined for public schools.

[Kieren Barnett 76]

So the conditions are:

• R$$$ Capacity > 7500 (I have almost 25,000)
• Average School Grade < 90 (How is this even calculated? I'd say my schools perform well)
• Reward 03790000 (Private School 2) has been built (built)

 

By all means, I should have this. Unless it comes down to the fact that my two private schools are overcrowded, and are actually bringing down the grade. One is at 4 apples out of 5, the other at 3 and a bit. Still, all my other educational institutions are at 5 apples.

 

I have lots of parks, and traffic congestion is non existent. I meat the conditions for CO$$$ and R$$$ in my city (I have 30,000 CO$$$ population).

 

I guess I don't need the 3rd private school as much as the university, but with the university conditions being more extreme, I think I need to meet the conditions of this before I can get the university.

• R$ + R$$ + R$$$ Capacity > 15000 (190,000 total)
• Average Mayor Rating > 42 (About 80)
• Average School Grade > 95 (again, what does this mean? Does it just mean good education levels, which my city average is at 180 now.)

 

I am almost sure that the school grade is the problem, although the game doesn't really make it clear what this means, or how it's calculated, so I don't know how I can fix it.

[Chesh 173]

I've unlocked the university in every township of mine with a population surpassing 16,000(?). I never mean to unlock it specifically, I just happen to meet the requirements naturally (I can't remember exactly what the requirements are, but I don't remember them being much of a challenge). I never put down private schools either, is there a point? Besides R$$$ appeal, I mean?

 

EDIT: For 180K people, you sure don't have a lot of residential zoning. Is that all high density?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You seem to have met the conditions, so maybe you've found an undocumented feature (BUG).  I don't find myself too excited by private schools nor the EQ because I simply follow the recommendations on the dashboard and keep the game happy.  Private schools are not, I think, much to do with the EQ.  Try taking the pressure off with other public schools and high schools.

 

There are some private schools on the exchanges.

[JJogurt 18]

School grade =/= E.Q.

 

School grade is determined by your education funding.  You should check if any of your schools are over capacity.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

In 12 years of play, I've never encountered the term School Grade.  Elucidate further please.

[JJogurt 18]

If you check the requirements for University you'll see that you need to have School Grade of at least 95. This is not E.Q. I assume it's a measurement of how well funded your schools are, with a value of 100 meaning that all your schools are adequately funded. Unfortunately, there's no way of checking your School Grade in game.

 

Same thing with the "Number of good Public Libraries" requirement for the Main Library. In this case "good" means that they should be adequately funded.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Never noticed that.  I always fund schools properly.  If they get over crowded, I either replace them or add another.

[Compdude787 916]

I only give my schools the amount of funding that only slightly exceeds the number of students enrolled at said school. Same applies for power plants, and any other government building that has capacities to deal with. If I didn't do this, I'd be bleeding money. My advisers do a good job of keeping me informed when things are over-capacity, so that isn't a problem. As a result, I make such a big profit that I give my Sims a tax cut. Bet you wish that would happen more often in RL, huh?

[Turjan 1,048]

Unless it comes down to the fact that my two private schools are overcrowded, and are actually bringing down the grade.

 

That's indeed a problem. Private schools are just a stop gag for when your educational system is not up to task in the beginning of the game. They tend to get overcrowded when the city grows, which can indeed prevent you from getting university access. Just nuke the private schools, you don't need them anymore. The university should be offered immediately afterwards.

 

If for whatever reason you want to keep private schools in future games, use one of the modded versions. I prefer the slider-less variant that just sets the maximum number of students to 10,000.

[Kieren Barnett 76]

I think it is the private schools that are bringing down my school grades, so I'll demolish them for the university

 

Also, it is a lot of high density. It's the main city in my region, so I wanted to have a large downtown area of high rises.