10 Did: Unlockable Additional Trait Slots
By default, Sims in The Sims 3 have a total of 5 traits that are chosen (or randomly selected, depending on how well younger Sims are raised,) when they age up. Once their traits are locked in, they can only be changed using mods or cheats. In The Sims 3: University Life expansion pack, players were able to unlock up-to two additional trait slots by fully completing a degree or climbing to level eight of a Social Group. There are recommended traits based off of each accomplishment, but it's actually a totally free choice.
Of course, with The Sims 4, traits are doled out in a completely different way and Sims can have as many as they can meet the requirements for, but it would still be nice to see some unique traits (and thus, interactions) for college graduates!
9 Didn't: Broken Classes
If there's one thing that The Sims 3 is infamous for, it's being a little... quirky, in terms of performance. With a fully open world that's always running, it puts a considerable amount of strain on a computer's hardware. The interactive lectures that came with The Sims 3: University Life seemed like an awesome idea - and in fact, for people whose computers were up to the task, they probably are!
Unfortunately, several players have reported having issues. Sometimes the active Sim will be the only student in attendance - or the only one there at all, because the professor will just choose not to show up either. Sometimes there will be a hold-up that causes the lecture to seemingly never end, or a traffic jam at the door. It's an amazing concept, but it'd be better left out if there's nothing that can be done about all the hang-ups!
8 Did: Hangouts (Especially Comic Shops)
There were a handful of Hangouts introduced in The Sims 3: University Life. The Grotto featured a pool table, a few good places for street art, and baristas that could serve up a variety of drinks, B's Bowlarama was a bowling alley, and Keith's Komics was exactly what it sounds like, a comic shop!
Bowling alleys and everything The Grotto had to offer were brought into The Sims 4 through a series of packs including City Living, Bowling Night, and Get Together, but there's nothing even close to the nerdy haven of a comic shop. Keith's Komics was packed full of single-player arcade machines (which, honestly, were even in The Sims 2: University,) computers, and of course, comics to buy and read.
Outside of the one festival introduced in City Living, The Sims 4 is generally lacking in good places for Sims with a taste for all things geeky and nerdy to hangout.
7 Didn't: Social Groups
Dividing Sims up into cliques has some very real-world vibes to it, but those vibes are, quite bluntly, dated. There were only three different Social Groups, Jocks, Nerds, and Rebels, which are pretty under-representative of... well, basically everything in-between. It was particularly irritating because reaching a certain level in each Social Group unlocked access to an exclusive career path: Nerds could become Video Game Developers, Rebels could become Art Appraisers, and Jocks could become Sports Agents.
The main saving grace for Social Groups was that Sims could be in any of the three without any consequences, and unlock every career path if they managed to reach level eight in all of them. Even so, it'd be nice to see The Sims 4 deviate away from slapping literal labels on people based on their hobbies and social circle.
6 Did: Wearable Backpacks
When it comes to The Sims as a franchise, the small things are what really come out to pull everything else together neatly. Being able to toss a backpack on the floor as a decorative clutter item is pretty cool, but being able to actually wear it and use it to carry your stuff is significantly cooler. In The Sims 3: University Life, backpacks could go anywhere your Sim did. It made them constantly lugging around their class assignments, laptops, and toys seem a lot more plausible - plus, it was just a really nice touch, aesthetically speaking.
5 Didn't: Constant Messes In Communal Areas
Having to live with roommates IRL is a little bit of a lottery, and while it's commendable that The Sims 3: University Life was able to bring that into the game with such potent realism, it was incredibly annoying to constantly have to clean up after everyone else in your dorm.
The kitchen has a fifty percent chance of being covered in forgotten, half-eaten food and flooded from a broken sink or dishwasher - assuming, of course, that it isn't on fire because one of your Sim's roommates refuses to accept that cooking just isn't their calling. Bathrooms can be a total nightmare of stinky, grimy toilets and showers, because apparently no one else knows how to flush.
Sometimes realism is great, but other times, it's just a pain. This is definitely one of the latter.
4 Did: Greek Houses
Greek houses are generally represented through sororities and fraternities, which are divided by gender. Since The Sims 4 had an update that pretty much brushed the gender binary off altogether, it seems unlikely that there would be a comeback of those two specific types of Greek houses. But maybe they could've come up with something entirely their own that didn't have to lean on played-out gender norms or the financial status of a Sim's family. It would've been nice to see something like that, especially if it came with some benefits that your Sim could take advantage of in the future like job offers!
3 Didn't: A Lack Of Story-Progression
Whenever your Sim was away at university, the world that they left behind was pretty much paused. It was easy to understand why that would be a thing, since most computers probably can't handle running two separate worlds at the same time, but coming home to find that no one has grown up and literally nothing has changed kind of defeats the purpose of the gameplay.
In reality, whenever you come back home, your middle school sister is a high schooler now, your high school best friend has probably gotten into a serious relationship, and your parents might have even decided to add a new member to the family! Having the homeworld completely frozen in time breaks the immersion of going to university.
2 Do: Smaller Arcade Games
Arcade games were first introduced in The Sims 3: Late Night, an expansion pack which also brought vampires and bands, in the form of three different games that each had their own stylized machine. The Sims 3: University Life brought three games as well, called Fire in the Skies, Longhorns and Laser Beams, and Night of the Shambling Shades IV. Sims with a taste for the nerdy things in life could play to their heart's content and they were a key component in tying together any bowling alley or dive bar.
Though it would've been nice to have two-player games as well, the smaller arcade machines were aesthetically pleasing for both community and residential lots - which can't exactly be said about the giant four-player arcade game that came with The Sims 4: Get Together.
1 Don't: Sitting Around Waiting All The Time
The Sims 3: University Life aimed to bring a realistic college experience to players and in a lot of ways, it did just that - however, that's not always a good thing. While their Sims was attending class, the player was left with nothing to do but hit the fast forward button and wait around.
To an extent, that's still true with The Sims 4: Discover University, but the classes seem to go by much faster. Additionally, players can always hop back into Manage Worlds and play with another household for a while if they've grown tired of waiting around for their university students, which is something that The Sims 3: University Life certainly didn't offer!