I sometimes think the other age groups in TS4 don’t get as much love as Young Adults (and Adults) do.
Young Adults/Adults get to experience EA’s worlds to the fullest. Whereas other age groups get stuck behind with limited interactions.
So any mod that gives Toddlers, Children, Teens, and Elders a chance to shine is an automatic win in my book.
Thankfully, most of these school mods do exactly that: especially for Toddlers to Teens. Check out these incredible (and incredibly fun) school mods to actually make learning fun again.
1. Drop Out of High School and Get a Real Job Mod by Telford
Let’s start with Telford’s impressive (and hefty) mod that allows Teen Sims to drop out of high school and get a job.
That means they won’t come home with homework to do, they won’t have to raise skills to certain levels, and they won’t have to maintain grades.
They will, essentially, be working like Young Adults and Adults.
Already this mod makes the game so much more realistic in the playability/events sense.
This closes off some interactions for them, but it definitely opens up more in terms of a career.
It’s a great concept that’s executed beautifully in this multi-part download – of which there are, essentially, three major aspects:
Let your Teen drop out of school without facing consequences (i.e., getting whisked away by Child Services)
Make Adult Jobs and Careers available for Teens
Make Adult Job and Career Outfits available for Teens
Like I said, hefty. But definitely worth it.
Quick Note: You should ideally just need to download and install the files available. But be sure you read the creator’s notes on the download page thoroughly so you can fully enjoy the mod!
And instead of sending our Sims down the ever-famous rabbit hole, it allows us to follow our Sims around and control the flow of their workday.
We’re given a taskbar, a list of possible tasks to complete, and even a couple recurring NPCs to chat up when things get too repetitive.
This intuitive mod by Zerbu pretty much follows the same theme.
Instead of your Child and Teen Sims disappearing down God-knows-where from 7AM to 3PM (Pacific Sim Time, maybe?) you now get to follow them to their location of learning!
It’s a simple idea that got translated into a fully functional mod with tons of cool features.
Lemme list a few:
Five Custom Subjects: Personal Development, Problem Solving, Creative Arts, Health and Fitness, Science and Technology
Attend a different subject every day
Redeem Reward Traits by earning Emblems; earn Emblems by applying for Special Opportunities (unlockable aspirations) from the Principal
Surprise Guest Speakers (NPCs) from either the Doctor, Detective, or Scientist Careers
Note: The Sims 4 Get to Work expansion pack is required for this mod.
Created specifically for the previous mod (Zerbu’s “Go To School”), this mod adds a fully built and fully furnished Elementary School for your little kiddos to run around in!
This Community Lot boasts two beautifully-designed floors with all the rooms you can imagine you’d find in a regular school.
I’m talking an Arts n’ Crafts room, a supervised computer room, public Restrooms, and a nice safe napping area for tuckered out little tykes.
Best part? Everything in the lot is interactive and made of vanilla base game items. So you don’t need to download new CC just to make this school look like it does in the pics.
Hey, since you’re going to be following your child Sim around with the Go To School mod, you might as well follow them to pretty places, right?
4. No Grade or Highschool From the Start Mod by azoresman
The premise for this mod is pretty much the same as Telford’s “Drop Out of High School” mod.
The biggest differences are (1) it also gives Children the option to stay out of school, and (2) it leaves Children and Teen Sims alone from the get-go.
They won’t be enrolled in school once they age up just to later drop out, and they won’t be pressured to start a job or a career.
They can basically hang around the house as they please – with no fear of repercussion or penalty –until their birthday.
Or until you actually want them to get an education…
Should that happen, all you need to do is use the cheats careers.promote gradeschool or careers.promote highschool to put them back on the list of the learned.
It’s a very simple & very straightforward addition that’s easy to use and light on the Mods folder (something I’m sure many of us can appreciate).
5. Child and Teen Can Quit or Rejoin School by Triplis
This is the last mod with this concept, I promise.
Telford’s Drop Out of High School mod was aimed specifically at Teens and Careers for Teens, adding additional interactions and unlockables.
Azoresman’s No Grade or Highschool mod allowed Children and Teens to drop out of school, but didn’t include options for Teens to get a job.
Essentially the really hefty, extensive get-out-of-school mod and the simple, straightforward get-out-of-school mod.
Now this mod by Triplis, I feel, is a solid middle ground.
It disables the auto-enroll feature by default. Which means your Toddler or Child will not automatically enroll in school once they age up. You have to manually do it.
And unlike azoresman’s mod, you don’t need to use a cheat – just the Sim’s phone.
This mod (with a lengthy name) has a couple built-in failsafes and two variations, too. So it’s not as extensive as Telford’s, but it’s not as straightforward or barebones as azoresman’s either.
Whichever of the three you download is definitely a matter of preference and little else. They’re all great.
I personally love the concept of this mod, no matter how simple it seems. And the creator definitely delivered.
The premise is that the actual time your kid Sims get to leave school is based on their grades. Kinda like real life.
The default time that all school children come home to is 3PM. With this mod, B to D students get to go home at 2PM (maybe to allow for studying and/or homework). A students get to come home at 1PM (for exemplary performance, probably).
And F students don’t come home until 4PM.
Detention? Extra credit? Extra lessons?
Point is, this provides an avenue for you to spin a pretty neat narrative regarding your kid Sim’s education, which I think is pretty cool.
I believe the mod’s name is pretty self-explanatory. But let me break it down, anyway.
This was created to address the issue of there just being not enough time for Teens. Between going to school and satisfying their needs, there’s very little time left for them to finish their homework, work on Skills, and complete Extra Credit projects.
If you’ve ever played the 100 Baby Challenge – or at least played a full Sim house – you know this to be Gospel truth.
This mod introduces a new cheat to the game that allows you to max your Teen Sim’s school performance without having to turn in homework or level up Skills.
Simply enable cheats (by typing testingcheats true into the command bar) and then click on the Teen (while holding down the Shift key).
This should bring up the cheats menu. You’ll see an extra interaction menu titled Cheat Sim Info. Under that, there’s an option to Max School Performance.
Click on that option and, boom. All requirements completed and performance meter maxed.
Just like Zerbu’s Go to School Mod, Stacie’s Playable School Events is a pretty exciting mod that allows you to join your Child and Teen Sims as they navigate Elementary and High School.
But instead of a mod that rewrites the whole educational system, this introduces a new Event that your parent Sim can plan.
All you need to do is put down a school lot on a Library, Chalet Gardens, Park, or Generic Lot (might we recommend sim4fun’s Elementary School mod?) and start the Event their via phone or calendar.
Make sure this is done before 8:00AM!
Choose the student(s) you’d like to invite, and start the event.
Your school will have to have a kitchen if you want the staff to cook, and a microphone if you want the teachers to teach. Yes, you can actually have a school cafeteria for your Student Sims to grab some lunch!
Let me quickly list some of the cool new additions this mod gives us.
Build Skills (while attending school)
Chance for Promotion to Higher Grade (by hitting Event goaled)
Tiered Rewards for Goaled Events
And you don’t even need an expansion pack or game pack for this! Playable School Event works completely fine with just the Sims 4 Base Game.
Aside from making school a playable event, that same creator made an “Education System Bundle Mod” that basically adds a whole bunch of beneficial goodies to TS4’s current education system.
This doesn’t need to be used in conjunction with her Playable School Events mod, by the way.
This can be installed and used by itself. Options galore!
The mod is actually a bunch of her other education-related mods all bundled together. One mod allows Children and Teen Sims to actually build Skills while they’re at school and while doing homework.
Another mod opens up Preschool for overachieving Toddler Sims who just want to learn.
And a different mod even adds an Online Schooling option to the game! Just plop your Sim in front of a laptop or computer. A new interaction that reads Attend School Online should pop up.
Full details of what this mod does (and possible requirements you’ll need to prepare your game for) it can be found in the creator’s extensive download description. Be sure to read it carefully to optimize the experience!
Now this mod adds a new education system, and a new social event that may bring back fond memories for people who played The Sims 2.
Impress the Simston Private School Headmaster and get your kid enrolled in an exclusive Private School!
(Very reminiscent of Headmaster Visits from TS2 SimCity Academy, only there’s a Chess Game in place of a House Tour).
Kick things off by going to your Sim’s phone and selecting Schedule Headmaster Visit (§500). You’ll get a message telling you that the Simston Private School Headmaster is coming to your place for dinner.
The event begins once the Headmaster enters your home. You need to impress them via successful social interactions, lots of boasting, and a game of chess.
Succeed, and your child could be Simston’s newest addition – for the low fee of §1000 Simoleons.
Do note that scheduling the Headmaster visits also deducts §500 from your household funds, and canceling the event won’t refund it. Pretty pricey in-game, but hey. The experience is fun and definitely worth it.
Moving on to higher education, you’ve got this nifty little mod by Zero that gives Teen Sims the opportunity to skip High School and jump straight to University.
It’s realistic in the sense that the chances of being offered the jump aren’t very high to begin with (because Universities have standards, okay?)
Having the Genius trait tips the odds in your Teen’s favor.
A lousy school performance, on the other hand, pretty much kills their chances.
The whole jumping process is pretty true-to-life. You’ll get a random prompt informing you that your Teen can quit high school and enroll in University thanks to “excellent results.”
Once your Sim chooses the Quit High School option (although there is the option to Continue High School if this particular Sim isn’t the one you wanted to advance), an Application Letter is immediately sent out for your Teen.
If accepted, the Teen then has the option to enroll in University following the Discover University enrollment process.
But if you’re looking for something a little more straightforward…
12. Genius Teens Can Apply & Enroll To University Anytime by ilkaSimming
This mod does exactly what the previous mod (by Zero) does. It basically lets your Teen Sim skip High School and jumpstart their University life early.
The two biggest differences:
Only Teen Sims with the Genius trait have the option to enroll (or are an A student, depending on the version you download)
Teen Sims with the Genius trait can apply whenever they want (no waiting for auto-generated prompts)
The creator also keeps things pretty organic with this mod.
Instead of cheating your Teen’s promotion, you make them go through an official process should they choose to quit High School.
The mod has two versions, but you can only install one.
The original version allows only Genius Teens to enroll. The alternate version allows Genius Teens and Teens that achieved an A in High School to enroll.
The first is a little more selective, the second rewards hard work.
Note: unlike Zero’s mod, this mod doesn’t have a built-in option to quit school. The creator actually recommends installing Triplis’ “Child and Teen can Quit or Rejoin School” mod to remove the risk of penalties!
13. University – The Sheldon L Cooper Program by Zero
Combine this mod with Zero’s “Teens Jump to University” mod for an even more realistic and exciting enrollment experience!
The Sheldon L Cooper Program Mod basically adds another scholarship program to the game (for Teenagers).
There are 3 all in all (from Buckingham High):
Sheldon L Cooper Merit for Young Geniuses – valued at $15,000, covers the full cost of University, only available for Teens with the Genius trait
Sheldon L Cooper Merit for Young Promises – valued at $5,000, only available for High School A Teens
Sheldon L Cooper Program for All Students – special scholarship that adds an extra set of “special classes”
If your Teen is neither a Genius nor a High School A student, they can still apply for the program. As mentioned, this will enroll them in special classes (basically Night Classes) that they must attend to win the scholarship. They’re also given extra homework on top of the Teen’s regular homework that needs to be completed, and additional requirements that are honestly pretty freaking difficult.
It’s all very catered towards crafting a story of this bright, ambitious, overachieving teen that desperately wants to get into their Dream University, and I am here for it!
If you do combine this mod with the same creator’s Teens Jump mod, the school will take care of the Teen’s application for both Merit Scholarship ($15,000 for Genius Teens, $5,000 for Grade School A students) options.
Now I can’t speak for everyone’s dorm experience. But I, for one, was given access to a stove when I lived in the University Dorms.
How else could I have learned how to burn water?
Which is why I found it pretty frustrating when my University Sims couldn’t cook on Housing premises.
Enter Zerbu, again. This Master Mod Creator has made a simple little TS4 mod that obliterates the University Housing Restrictions that prevent us from placing any sort of electrical cooking implement within a five-mile radius of University Housing.
So your College Sim can practice burning Mac n’ Cheese to their heart’s content.
Wrapping up this list with yet another cool mod from Zero.
As the name suggests, installing this will make it so your Sim cannot become a Doctor, Scientist, Detective, Astronaut, or even Style Influencer without the appropriate University Degree.
Realistic, no?
Realistic, yes. And I love it. Absolutely love it.
Sure, it sort of forces you to play through the entire Discover University pack.
But for the sake of narrative, experience, and realistic gameplay? This is an A+ mod that deserves all the love in the world.
For a full list of all the Jobs & Careers that require a Degree (and the corresponding degree, of course) scroll to the end of the creator’s download notes.
