In The Sims, there are mods for almost anything. Modders even continue to work on The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, adding and polishing new features in years—or decades-old games. In The Sims 4, mods tend to enhance pre-existing gameplay elements.
One popular example is adeepindigo's Education Overhaul mod: not only does it add new elements to the game's education system for everyone from toddlers to teens, but it also introduces its own brand-new features. From boarding school to new careers, Education Overhaul has something for every young Sim looking for knowledge.
8 The Education Career
Education Overhaul adds a new branch to the Education career, which came with Discover University: K-12 Educator. Because this compliments a Discover University career, Sims will need one of a handful of university degrees to reach the new career branch:
- Art History
- Biology
- Economics
- Literature and Languages
- Physics
- Psychology
As in Discover University, you don't need to have a distinguished degree in these subjects to choose the K-12 Educator branch, but having a Distinguished Degree will still give you a career and salary boost. A new daily task, Research Teaching Methods, will boost a Sim's work performance, as will new Work from Home assignments such as answering emails, writing reports, and attending meetings.
7 Preschool
Toddlers can now attend Preschool instead of daycare. Preschool lasts about 8 hours every weekday, and while they're away, they'll have their needs met and even learn new skills and character values.
While the game whisks toddlers to daycare automatically when Sims leave the lot, enrolling in Preschool requires clicking on the toddler you want to enroll and doing so manually. Once toddlers are enrolled, they should attend Preschool automatically, but canceling the Preschool interaction on any given day will keep them home instead
6 Public School Changes
Sims are automatically enrolled in public school, as they are in the vanilla game. Education Overhaul adds new away actions (which you can access by clicking on Sims' icons when they're off the lot), increasing or decreasing school performance. Sims can do their homework online using a computer, but homework in the in-game homework book has also changed. Now, Sims can work on specific skills and character values by choosing to complete homework in particular subjects.
Custom assignments are also added—these work like the assignments in the Parenthood game pack, where they're randomly assigned. However, these assignments actually count as homework, so completing them will increase school performance rather than providing extra credit. With Education Overhaul installed, projects from Parenthood will be randomly assigned as custom assignments rather than being set every Monday.
5 Detention And Field Trips
New away actions can also earn your Sims after-school detention, which lasts for two hours. Detention is generally more likely for students with lower grades. Still, sleeping in class, goofing off, and getting caught doing homework (that was supposed to be finished the night before) are sure-fire ways to get your Sims in trouble.
Repeated detentions can even cause your Sims to be removed from public school and forced to attend the mod's new Striker Alternative School. Sometimes, Sims will be randomly assigned to go on a field trip, at the beginning of the school day. There are six available Field Trip options, and Sims will spend the whole school day wherever the field trip ends up being located.
4 Snow Days And Summer Vacation
With the Seasons expansion pack installed, Sims can sometimes get snow days. In Education Overhaul, snow days are most common in the Winter, but they can also happen in Fall and Spring, as long as there’s snow on the ground.
Summer Vacation also happens automatically, without having to add it to the calendar. Sims will automatically return to school on the first weekday of Fall, but they can be sent back to school early using a phone or computer.
3 Teen Graduation
Sims can now graduate from high school! A teen Sim will graduate on their last day of being a teen, and they'll wear either a gap and gown or military dress, depending on what type of school they're attending. If aging is on, teen Sims will age up to an adult after their graduation ceremony.
With aging off, you can manually choose to have a Sim graduate, but it won't age a teen Sim up. Sims with high grades might graduate with honors or become their class Valedictorian. During a Sim's last three days as a teen, they will also have the opportunity to take an Academic Aptitude Test, which will significantly boost their school performance.
2 New School Options
Education Overhaul adds two public schools, Bedlington Latin School, a specialized testing school, and Striker Alternative School, for students with learning, behavioral, or social-emotional difficulties. Sims can also attend one of two private schools, Wintercrest Preparatory Academy, and Simcity Academy. Each school type requires Sims to apply before being enrolled, and application requirements differ for every school. For each application, Sims will need to pay an application fee and complete a personal statement, tour, interview, and final evaluation. Even after all of this, there is no guarantee that Sims will be accepted; good grades might help, though.
Sims with bad enough grades have the chance of failing school (public or private) and being sent to Striker Alternative School. In specialized schools, Sims have a better chance at gaining various skills and increasing in positive character values. Private school Sims will even wear uniforms; if the Snowy Escape expansion pack is installed, you can choose which uniforms Sims wear via the downloadable mod files, but you can also opt to have uniforms pre-selected by the mod as well.
1 Boarding School
This is still an experimental feature, but new boarding school options allow Sims to attend school away from their households. Boarding school requires an application, like the other new schools. At boarding school, Sims can learn and gain most major skills and will gain skills and character values faster than they would in regular public school. Boarding school students can still call and text other Sims, but being away for so long can make some Sims homesick; when this happens, their guardians will receive a notification asking whether they want to withdraw the homesick child from boarding school.
Boarding school students will also return home during summer and holiday breaks and after aging up to a teen - if they start boarding school as children. When they're at home, you can end their break at any time using the phone menu. You can also cancel the Boarding School interaction if you want them to withdraw. After canceling the interaction, Sims can be withdrawn from boarding school via the social menu, after which they can attend regular public school, or enroll in another specialty school.