Where best to place university

[danny34]

Hi all, I am in the process of building my new city and have a population of around 15,000 people. I have just been recommended to build a university but due the high cost I want to make sure I place it in the right place. I have been reading online and have seen the following suggestions:

a) Place near industry as it helps the industry get to a higher level.
b) Place near residential zone as it increases value of surrounding area and is closer to the sims home.
c) Put in the centre of the map (I haven't got anywhere near the centre of my city yet)
d) Not near congested or built up areas due to the potential traffic issues.

I am a bit confused and would appreciate it if anyone could offer any advice to which of these options are correct. Also does it make a difference where you place the university i.e can you place it one the edge away from main zones? I am aware that there is probably a few options, and if so what has worked best for you? Thanks.

[vortext]

In general you'd want educational facilities to cover as much residential zones as possible since it's actually the educational level of sims which will push industry (and commercial) to a higher level. In other words, plopping it amid an industrial zone would be a waste. Other than that I'm not aware of any particular traffic issues the university might cause so it's pretty much up to you.

[APSMS]

In game terms, I'm pretty sure that the University doesn't have a radius, much like the community college. All Sims of appropriate age will use the University when needed, no matter where they live in the city. It has a landmark effect for CO I think, but other than that there isn't much downside. There's not really a significant amount of traffic generated by the University, (not like in real life anyway) so mostly I'd place it where it looks good.

It's probably worth noting that students don't commute to school, only workers, so even if your school has 50 000 students, you'll still have only the traffic of 500 or so teachers.

[CahosRahneVeloza]

The in game University does create "Crime" for some odd reason though. Damn you Maxis for your logic, higher Education DOES NOT equate to Crime in the real world you know 

[danny34]

Thanks guys, I think I will place it near my residential and commercial zones near an avenue to ensure I can deal with any traffic issues when/if they should arise.

[memo]

The in game University does create "Crime" for some odd reason though. Damn you Maxis for your logic, higher Education DOES NOT equate to Crime in the real world you know 

All mega lots suffer from this problem. It's also known as the mega-lot [crime bug]. The conclusion is, you need better police stations.

[Wodong]

The in game University does create "Crime" for some odd reason though. Damn you Maxis for your logic, higher Education DOES NOT equate to Crime in the real world you know 

I went to a "nice university" but it's a fact that there was a lot of crime, ranging from petty crap cops would tell you not to call them about (e.g. parties getting a little out of hand), to thefts and destruction of property, to full on assaults of various stripes.  Many crimes managed to go un- or under-reported through a combination of perpetrators' family standing and the uni admins wanting to downplay/sweep away anything that would hurt their ability to keep gouging people on tuition.