Rolling a Want for a Specific Major

[Aggie]

Normally I used to have my Young Adult Sims just arbitrarily choose a major as soon as they moved in, but once I found out that they'll actually roll up a want for a specific Major, I was greatly impressed and decided I would allow them to do that from now on. It usually seems to take about one Sim day for this Major-related want to roll up, but on this one Sim I have, she's already completed her first semester of her freshman year without having a Major-related Want or Fear appear.

I've seen her wants/fears refresh a number of times (as well as used the FFS Lot Debugger to refresh them) with no success. Any idea as to why she seems to refuse to want to choose a Major?

[miros]

Some Sims just never do (and end up Philosophy majors by default).  I think the trick is to roll the wants as many times as possible in the first Sim day or two.

[LFox]

Holy cow sims get wants to choose a specific major?  I didn't know that, i always just make them call up to choose one the minute they enter college.  Maybe i'll start leaving their major for a bit from now on.

[Moa]

I let all of mine roll up a want, with the exception of a very few who have interests of 10 in a subject area. Probably a slight majority of mine never roll up the want and end up as Philosophy majors. (I also let them decide if they want to join a Greek house or not.)

Occasionally they'll also roll up a fear of declaring a certain major.

[purplehaze]

I have never seen this want. But, then again, I am a control freak when it comes to my Sims.

[Aggie]

Some Sims just never do (and end up Philosophy majors by default).  I think the trick is to roll the wants as many times as possible in the first Sim day or two.

Yeah, I tried that. She seems rather determined to not make a choice. I think I'll give her until the end of her feshman year to make a decision and if she still can't decide, I'll decide for her.

I let all of mine roll up a want, with the exception of a very few who have interests of 10 in a subject area. Probably a slight majority of mine never roll up the want and end up as Philosophy majors. (I also let them decide if they want to join a Greek house or not.)

Occasionally they'll also roll up a fear of declaring a certain major.

Most of my Sims roll a fear at the same time as a want.

[notveryawesome]

I let my sims' personalities and LTWs determine which majors I choose for them. If the sim has a generic, non-career-oriented LTW such as 'Reach Golden Anniversary,' the sim can have pretty much any career, so I tend to choose the less common majors that are less likely to affect the typical career-oriented LTWs (Art, Psychology, etc). On the other hand, if the sim has a LTW to be Chief of Staff (or whatever), it only makes sense to choose a major that is conducive to that career path.

Sometimes I let my sims who have non-career LTW choose their own majors, but this is rare, since they still seem to choose the most common ones, like Mathematics, and I'd rather have them be artists or paranormal experts, since they'll never have LTWs to be these things, and it won't affect their permaplat status. I often give them the major of their choosing, in order to fulfill their wants, and then immediately switch majors, in order to fulfill mine.

[kutto]

Sims choose a major based on whatever will be easiest for them skill-wise. If they have a high enough level of a skill that is required fora certain major, they will want it. The opposite is true for fears. I, too, have had a sim who never wanted a major. I just let her stick with philosophy. She's happy enough doing spare-type things now.

[V]

I have had at least one sim who did not pick a major in her freshman year. Just keep waiting. I haven't had any who did not pick a major on their own eventually. I seem to remember that sim picked hers sometime in the middle of her sophomore year.

Has anyone had a sim spin a want to change majors after one was picked? I haven't had that yet, but I am very curious to see if it might happen spontaneously some day.

I don't play Uni enough, though, to have a large cache of examples to draw from.

[Moa]

With 341 controllable Sims in my game, I don't want all of them reaching perma-Plat, especially since I make Platinum mood one of the requisites for access to the Elixer of Life. But I don't want to play favorites either. Since it's too easy for them to top out in the career LTWs, I've been making them take the third job offered them, regardless. (Occasionally one will luck out with a first job that matches her LTW. I've got one permaplat Professional Party Guest and one permaplat Business Tycoon.) I've been toying with the notion of making them continue the career roulette wheel even after topping out on the first job.

I might as well let them have their way with the majors, since they don't strongly affect how my Sims do in the long run and I can get some easy Aspiration points for them in the short run.

Never had a Sim roll up a want to change majors.

[syberspunk]

I also didn't realize this before.  I used to declare majors for my sims all the time, but then, one time I forgot, and I saw a sim actually roll up a want.  From that point forward, I also waited for my sims to roll up wants for majors.  I usualy tend to go with it, even if it may not reflect "true life" (as many of my sims are based on people I know IRL).  But I also have sims who don't ever roll up specific majors, so they just end up with the default, mostly because I tend to forget to declare them.

Sims choose a major based on whatever will be easiest for them skill-wise. If they have a high enough level of a skill that is required fora certain major, they will want it. The opposite is true for fears. I, too, have had a sim who never wanted a major. I just let her stick with philosophy. She's happy enough doing spare-type things now.

Is this true? Are they really skill related?  I thought they were mostly aspiration and/or personality related.  I've played a lot of knowledge sims, and a lot of them had a tendency to pick the same major, usually physics I think? (Which ever has the icon with the atom like picture... or well, the central ball with several rings around it).  Others seem to choose math.

I think I've had popularity sims pick history/politics.  And I've had romance sims pick art.  The fears tend to run in "pairs" with the wants, in that a fear for a certain major seems to have a "polar opposite" for a want.  I forget what they are exactly, but sims who want physics always fear some specific major, as opposed to sims who want math, who always fear another specific major.  I rarely ever give into those fears, so I can't remember them off the top of my head.

Other sims, who don't seem to pick majors, do sometimes have fears of becoming declared a philosophy major.  I find it funny, because they are too indecisive or lazy to pick a major, but they don't just want to end up with the default one.  Hehe.  So I often think to myself, if you're too lazy to pick one for yourself, then you're gonna suffer for your indecision.  Only, by the time it rolls around where they end up being self declared, that fear has probably rolled away and is over powered by something else.

Ste

[jrd]

Don't only knowledge Sims get this want? And I can't see any evidence for the kutto theorem... it seems utterly random for me.

[miros]

No, it seems to be how quick you can make them reroll their wants (by satisfying them, not the Lot Debugger).  Most of my born-in-game Sims end up as Math or Physics majors because they're Knowledge Sims.  Grown up Townie teens usually want Poli Sci, Literature, or Drama.  Sometimes it seems aspiration based, sometimes it's skill based.  I use Community Lot Skilling, so they usually have a decent amount of Logic or Creativity.

[maxon]

Some of my sims get two wants to declare different majors and quite a lot get the fear of declaring economics - which is a bit tough on the to-be-business sims.

[miros]

Once you give them the major they want, you can then give them economics or another major of your choice.

[maxon]

Once you give them the major they want, you can then give them economics or another major of your choice.

Paff - no thanks, I live to send them into aspiration failure!