SimCity 2013 Education Guide – Library, Schools and University

How to manage Education in SimCity to keep your Sims civil and reduce crime rate.


As you might have gathered from reading the rest of the SimCity guides, education plays an important part in solving a lot of problems. Whether you have high crime rates or want your Sims to recycle more, the answer is education.

SimCity Education – How To Educate Your Sims

Education benefits the whole of your city by reducing garbage production, increasing recycling, reducing risk of fires, reducing crime, improve industries, provide valuable modules, reduce power and water consumption and more.

However, as the case with utilities and city services, educational institutes also do not produce any income and must be supported by generating income elsewhere. The cost is great but the benefits are great as well so it is your job as the mayor to balance the two factors.

At the start, you will only get access to the public library and grade school but as your school gains more and more attendance, the highs school, community college and university will be made available, given that you have a department of education.

For more help on SimCity, read our Tourism, City Services and Zoning Guide.

Public Library

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 100/hour
  • Capacity: 200 Sims

Prerequisites:  Town Hall

The public library is a good boost to the education but does not have the same impact as an actual school. The library is available to Sims of all ages and backgrounds, providing them happiness as well as slowly educating them. Not only does it provide education and make Sims happy, the library also slightly increases your city’s attraction rating.

Grade School

  • Cost: 16,000
  • Operational Cost: 400/hour
  • Desks: 150

Prerequisites: Town Hall

This is the most basic starting point for educating your Sims. It increases land value, encouraging medium wealth residential areas to pop up nearby. It won’t produce the large skilled work force you need but it is a good start. The modules help increase the capacity and availability of the grade school.

Modules:

Grade School Sign

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Flagpole:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

School Bus Lot:

  • Cost: 3,000
  • Operational Cost: 100/hour
  • Buses: 2
  • Bus Capacity: 20 students
  • Maximum Modules: 4

The school bus lot provides you additional school buses to pick up more students from around the city.

Classrooms:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 200/hour
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Increases the student capacity meaning that more students receive education simultaneously.

Top Floor Classrooms:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 200/hour
  • Desks: 200
  • Maximum Modules: 4

More classrooms to increase student capacity even more.

School Bus Stop

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: 10/hour
  • Bus Stop Capacity: 20 students

Prerequisites: Grade School or High School in the region

The school will be available to the kids in walking distance from it. However, the students far away need to take a bus. The school bus stop indicates where the school bus will make a stop to pick up kids. In the education menu, you will notice that the area closest to the school is green whereas the rest of the area is red. T

This indicates coverage. Place a school bus stop sign an appropriate distance away and you will notice the red zone turn green, increasing the areas happiness and giving it access to education. The school bus make a morning round picking up kids. The kids all gather at the bus stop from where the bust collects them.

High School

  • Cost: 60,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,000/hour
  • Desks: 800

Prerequisites:City Hall, Department of Education in the region and Educate 500 students a day

The grade school is a good start but eventually you need to provide your Sims with more education. The high school has a larger capacity and larger price tag compared to the grade school. Also, the high school accepts students from other cities as well, given they have built school bus stop signs.

Alternatively, you can get your Sims to study from another city’s high school. Remember that if foreign students also attend, the desks will be quickly filled, making you extend the school through modules.

Modules:

High School Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Flagpole:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

School Bus Lot:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 100/hour
  • Buses: 2
  • Bus Capacity: 60 students
  • Maximum Modules: 4

The bus lot gives you additional buses to collect more students.

Classrooms:

  • Cost: 17,000
  • Operational Cost: 500/hour
  • Desks: 1,000
  • Maximum Modules: 4

Increases the capacity of student you can teach simultaneously.

Gymnasium:

  • Cost: 10,000
  • Operational Cost: 250/hour
  • Capacity: 500 Sims
  • Maximum Modules: 1

The gymnasium houses many sports events, as well as providing regular exercise for students. It increases your city’s attraction and encourages medium wealth residences by increasing land value.

Community College

  • Cost: 42,000
  • Operational Cost: 500/hour
  • Desks: 500

Prerequisites: City Hall, Department of Education in the region and Educate 800 students in a day

The community college takes education to a whole new level. It encourages the growth of tech level 2 industrial buildings. Theses industrial buildings, like factories, provide jobs to many. However, while factories produce a lot of pollution, these industrial building are much cleaner and they even produce more tax revenue.

Community College students are also responsible for their own transportation and will walk, drive or use mass transit to get to their destination. You can accommodate the students by placing bus and streetcar stop signs and this will also cut down on traffic.

Modules:

College Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Flagpole:

  • Cost: 100
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Extension Wing:

  • Cost: 12,000
  • Operational Cost: 375/hour
  • Desks: 750
  • Maximum Modules: 4

The extension increases your student capacity allowing you to teach more students simultaneously.

University

  • Cost: 88,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,600/hour
  • Desks: 800

Prerequisites:City Hall, Department of Education in the region and Educate 1,200 students in a day

The university is the pinnacle of education available to your city. It produces the highly skilled workers required to work high tech industries. The university encourages growth of tech level 3 industrial building.

Modules:

University Sign:

  • Cost: 200
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Pedestrian Path:

  • Cost: None
  • Operational Cost: None
  • Connect the areas around your university with these pedestrian only paths.

Dormitory:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 500/hour
  • Capacity: 500 students
  • Maximum Modules: 3

The dormitory houses students and in turn increases your university’s studentship without the need for additional housing.

School of Business:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,000/hour
  • Desks: 500
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Increases revenue generated from commercial areas around the region.

School of Engineering:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,000/hour
  • Desks: 500
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Increases revenue generated by low and medium wealth industries around the region. Also unlocks Hazmat Garage, Vertical Turbine, Clean Coal Generator, Clean Oil Generator and Space Center research projects.

School of Law:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,000/hour
  • Desks: 500
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Required to unlock the Detective Wing research project. Also lowers rehabilitation time required by jailed criminals in the region.

School of Medicine:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,000/hour
  • Desks: 500
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Unlocks the Surgical Center research project. Also reduces the chance of Sims in the region getting sick.

School of Science:

  • Cost: 40,000
  • Operational Cost: 1,000/hour
  • Desks: 500
  • Maximum Modules: 1

Increases revenue generated by high tech industries in the region. Also unlocks Diagnostic Lab, Concentrated Solar Array, Solar Farm and Gen II Thermal Reactor research projects.

Things to Remember:

  • Educated Sims consume less power, water, are less likely to start fires.
  • Educated Sims get sick less often and recycle more.
  • Colleges and universities encourage clean high tech industries which are a much better alternative to factories.
  • More classrooms and extension wings mean not only more students being taught at the same time but also more jobs for teachers.
  • On a tight budget you can shut down the grade school and have your high school accommodate the extra students.

How To Manage Education in SimCity
Managing the education of your city can be a tough task, mainly because it requires so much investment. However, it’s been made pretty clear that education has a huge impact on the progress of your industries and the environmental cleanliness.

It’s important that you have sound knowledge of your city’s educational structure. Access the Education data map to see the details of your city’s residential buildings. The graphical representation will show you the average education per building. This is a great way to determine whether or not you should invest more in creating higher class educational buildings like the Community College or University.

Remember: education greatly improves your buildings. Hi-tech buildings will automatically emerge (with a cleaner environment) as educated people begin to search for jobs. Once you have a good amount of education, tech level 2 buildings will start to show. Hi-tech buildings won’t emerge until you have a University built in your city.

So what’s the benefit of hi-tech buildings you ask? Apart from being cleaner and more efficient, hi-tech buildings will generate large tax revenues, and are a great way to ensure longer sustenance of a healthy and wealthy life for your Sims in the city. Remember: the higher education facilities behave as both catalyst for creation and as upkeep.

There are some buildings that will actually require educated workers more than others. A great example of this is a Nuclear Power Plant. The nuclear plant will require highly educated workers in order to work properly. If there are uneducated workers, there is a huge chance of a meltdown, making the close-by areas radioactive and unable to sustain life.

If you have a University in your city, then you should be proud of yourself. The University is not only a glorious collection of beautiful buildings, but also the only way to attain high level facilities such as the Great Works, Surgical Centers, and more. If you have enough financial resources, make sure that your University is busy in some kind of Research. You can initiate a research by clicking on the University and clicking the Start Research Project button.

One major concern with educational buildings is traffic. Lower level facilities such as grade and high school have their own buses, but the Community College and the University does not have a transport system. Hence, Sims will go in cars.

It’s thus very important to locate a University in a residential region or in the avenue of your city so that most of the Sims can access it easily. The best preferred way is to actually locate it immediately in the Residential areas so that Sims can walk to school.

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