More Awesome Than You!

Any ideas why my sim students have no Greek house joining options on the phone?  I send a student to Uni (La Fiesta Tech at present, which has default Greek houses), and they move into the dorm.  Everything works fine.  No errors have been logged.  They make friends, they become Big Sim, they uselessly join the SS, they ACR woohoo like mad.  The only thing they can never do seems to be joining a greek house.

My thinking is that this could be related to:
1) Not enough dormies - perhaps the population of the Uni is too small (the whole uni has only 15 dormies in total).
2) Work of the non-awesome - although I have ONLY Awesome hacks (updated and checked) and Twojeffs stuff (oh, yes, and the Crammyboy nudist hack and Insim).
3) My sims that I wanted to do this were too advanced in their studies (does this only work prior to Junior year?)

Generally I don't play Greek houses, since I like the dorm ACR and fight possibilities, but I thought I might at least try it once to see if it's any good.

IIRC you'll only have the option to found a Greek house, and only if your YA lives on his/her own lot. To join, your sim must be invited by someone who's already a member, which might be the reason why the pre-made Greek houses are occupied by playables. I may be wrong, though, I'm not that familiar with Greek houses, either...

Are there any greek house members?  If you're using a clean template there won't be.
You can't start a greek house if you're in a dorm, you'll only be able to call the exsisting greeks over, but if there are none, that won't be possible either.

Ah, well, there's part of my problem then.  As far as I know, there are no Greeks.  I've taken nodormieregen out for the moment in the hope that perhaps the game will create a couple.  I was vainly following the game guide which simply said "have your sim call the greek house to join it, and then make relationships with Greek members."  I should have realized that the game would not compensate for the clean templates (all my current dormies are CAS created).

If the game does create a couple of Greeks (face templates installed to hopefully avoid fugly dormies), I suppose I'll be able to join the existing Greek houses.  If not, I can always try creating my own Greek house.  Maybe I'll bulldoze the default ones, or rezone them as dorms or residential.

Greeks aren't created automatically by the game.  The ones that come with the default Unis are EAxis-made playables.  You'd have to start your own greek house in a clean template uni.

Huh? Jolrei, there has to be an occupied greek house. Basically, a house with residents showing as such on the subhood view. If there is no such house, there aren't any Greek houses to join. There's no such thing as the game creating Greeks (beyond those default occupied houses, which you shouldn't have with the empty templates).

By Jove, I think I've finally got it!  OK then, my Uni, which was created off a clean template, therefore has only the greek house buildings, but no Greeks.  Since the game will create no Greeks, these now empty houses would appear to be useless, unless I can get someone to move in and start a greek house there.

Dammit, I should have just stuck with Academie La Tour!

Why?  Greek houses make University almost tolerable.  Here is the program:

1.  Found Greek House by using the phone.  I recommend at least three or four residents before founding, to start.
2.  Throw parties constantly and ask for pledges.  Order pledges around to clean/garden/write term papers/etc. while in pledge period for no influence cost.  If they leave, call and invite them back.
3.  Invite new members to move in after pledge period.  Any resident of the house can do this regardless of relationship level.  Build house to maximum resident level, which is 8 without cheats.
4.  Did I mention throw parties constantly?  Keep hands off pause button, don't sweat the details, and do your best.
5.  Try to keep the maximum number of residents as much as possible.  When one graduates and moves back to neighborhood, ask another to move in.
6.  Throw lots of parties and repeat, ad nauseum.

By using the above program, I can have graduates from University almost every game session that I play a Greek House.  Plus, if you do it right, not every single student will pass with a 4.0 GPA, and some might even be put on academic probation.  Resist the urge to micromanage and don't bother with aspiration until a sim graduates.  Do to the slowed decay of motives, I have found that University students manage their own basic needs better than typical sims.  University sims can survive on pizza and espresso, and in Greek Houses they don't even need beds, they can sleep on the floor if they just have to.

(Cheaty Tip:  Using Ingelogical shrub or other such device ensures the sims you want to join can meet the house members.)

I hadn't thought of the pledge period perks of getting other sims to do stuff for no influence cost.  That could be worth something.

Feh. How do you think Aquitaine Ridge got a 4.0? It surely wasn't through her own work. It was the 20-or-so pledges, and the parties kept her Pleasure-then-Popularity butt in platinum. I started it at one sim, moved in another after a semester, then her two siblings on the third year. 1x2 lot, unfurnished on move-in with barely enough to buy the cheapest toilet, shower, a fridge, and one cabinet, but by the end it was very nicely furnished with a large pool and landscaping.

Your tale of Aquitaine reminds me of a great Kids in the Hall monolgue, where Dave is playing a bad doctor and explains that he really is simply horrible (excerpted and highlighted):

Wanna know something? I'm a bad doctor. I'm not boasting. I mean, who would? Just stating a fact that I've never really gotten the hang of the whole healing-the-sick thing. And don't interpret this as some sort of false modesty.

...

I guess it all started in high school where I was a very bad science student. One day when we were supposed to be dissecting a frog, I accidentally disassembled my desk. Oh, but, you know, I was a popular kid. You know, the other students were always eager to help me out.  -  ...   But I didn't worry about it. I figured, how far could you coast on charm? Well, pretty far, actually!

Greek houses are fun to play, I never bothered with them before but decided that my legacy family should have one. Not only do you not really need beds (except a double  ;D ), you do not even need to bother with a fridge and stove, there is always pizza about. The main thing is to have an exercise machine handy to keep your sims from getting too fat.

Having a double story house with the upstairs accessible to household only works perfectly, so that all the partying happens downstairs. One of my legacy kids brought the gamer career pinball machine with her from home, so now the visitors will help earn money, too.