Game guide:Getting into private school

Getting into Private School

The uniform worn by those who attend private school

In this game guide, readers will learn how to successfully complete the Headmaster scenario, and therefore get the children/teens of the household into private school. Note: This game guide is only relevant to The Sims 2 - there is no private school in The Sims or The Sims 3.

Beforehand

Players must have a child or older Sim call the Headmaster and invite him over by using the "Invite Headmaster" option on the telephone. However, the household must contain a child or teen Sim with a minimum grade of C before the option becomes available on the telephone.

Tips

• The Headmaster scenario can be glitchy, so call close to 4 pm. Save just before calling, and don't save while the scenario is in progress. That way, if it glitches, you should be able to exit without saving, and try again.
• Check to make sure that all doors are unlocked when the Headmaster visits. If he finds himself locked out, he will reject the child(ren) outright.

Scenario

Once called, the Headmaster will arrive at 5pm and a 6-hour scenario will start when he is greeted. The player has to reach a score of 90 (out of a possible 135) to get the family's kids/teens accepted into private school. There are three tasks that can be performed to build the score. To offer the Headmaster a tour of the house, or invite him to dinner, click on him and select an interaction under the "Entertain..." category. To schmooze, click on him and select a "Schmooze..." interaction.

House Tour

To begin the house tour, click on the Headmaster and use the Entertain... > Give Tour interaction. The Sim that initiated it then needs to walk to every room of the house (including the yard) and select the Show Room interaction on the Headmaster once he has entered the room. The Headmaster will shake his head or clap after the interaction is selected, and the scenario dialog in the corner of the screen will update, but there will be no other visual clue that the room was shown. Once every room has been shown, select the End Tour interaction on the Headmaster.

Tips

• Items that will earn the room a good score include:
  • Floors and walls that are worth §10 each
  • Well-lit areas (the lights don't have to be expensive to impress the Headmaster)
  • Artworks within the house
  • Trees and a well-maintained garden

• Items that will kill the room score include:
  • Unpaid or ignored bills
  • Broken objects
  • Weeds
  • Unpainted walls
  • A room with no roof

• It's a good idea to have two parents at home, one giving the tour, while the other parent cooks the food. Try to keep the kid(s) out of the way. Alternatively, the player can have the child give the tour. The Headmaster likes children.

Dinner

To prepare dinner for the Headmaster, have the Sim with the highest cooking skill in the household cook a meal. Once the meal has been made and served, select Entertain... > Call for Dinner by clicking on the Headmaster. Be sure that the meal has been served, or that individual plates have been prepared, before selecting this option, otherwise the Headmaster will not respond. This category's score will be posted in the dialog box once the meal is over, along with any Schmooze points that were earned during the meal.

Tips

• Never make chef salad for the headmaster. No matter who he is (as it varies for each game), the Headmaster absolutely hates chef salad. He prefers pork chops, lobster and salmon.
• If there is only one adult or elder in the household or if the player is worried about the time limit, Sims can prepare the food ahead of time, place it in their inventory, then take it out and serve it when the Headmaster arrives.
• Scoring for the dinner portion of the scenario depends on how satisfied the Headmaster is with his food. It is not necessary to have other household members eat; they will socialize with the Headmaster even if they are just sitting at the table while he eats.
• Be sure to always choose "Entertain... Call for Dinner" from the Headmaster's pie menu. Never choose "Call to Dinner... Everyone" from the meal's pie menu. This will only earn three points, as it will not count as part of the scenario.
• While dinner table conversation with the Headmaster will contribute to the Schmooze score, dinner table conversation also significantly increases the amount of time Sims take to eat a meal. Sims can take at least two game hours to eat a meal if they are socializing while they eat, so be sure to allow enough time for them to finish the meal before the timer runs out.
• Having more than one household member share the dinner table with the Headmaster is a calculated risk; it may boost the Schmooze score, or may keep it down. This is because the player has no control over whether the household members will build relationships with the Headmaster or with one another.

Schmooze

The schmoozing element of the scenario involves building the Headmaster's relationships with the household members. The more the daily relationship between the Headmaster and a Sim in the household grows, the more the Schmooze score grows. Talking around the dinner table will contribute to this score.

To Schmooze with the Headmaster, click on him and select Schmooze... and one to four options will appear: Schmooze about school, work, money, or politics. Options other than schmoozing about school will appear as the Sim's relationship with the Headmaster grows. The latter two options will not appear unless there is a high relationship with the headmaster, though they will give a high score if successful.

Tips

• If the player uses the Testingcheatsenabled cheat, the player can make their Sim best friends with the Headmaster. This fills the Schmooze requirement. As long as the Sims give him a nice tour, the children are guaranteed to be accepted into private school regardless of the quality of the dinner.
• Unemployed Sims cannot schmooze about work, even if they are retired.^{[confirmation needed]}

Bonus Scoring

Getting the Headmaster to do any of these things once will earn an extra 10 points:

• Getting into a hot tub (though it can be hard to get him out).
• Drinking coffee.
• Have a drink from the bar.

Tips

• Players who use the coffeecuphack from More Awesome Than You! may want to consider removing or disabling it before calling the Headmaster, unless they don't plan to serve him coffee or espresso. Occasionally, the mod may cause a "jump bug" to occur when a Sim washes a coffee cup in a sink. While this is only a mild annoyance if it happens to a household member, the Headmaster will vanish if it happens to him.
• Testingcheatsenabled can be used to make the Headmaster selectable. This may be useful if he gets in a hot tub and will not get out.

Afterwards

As soon as the total score breaks the 90-point requirement, the headmaster will leave, even if there's time remaining on the clock, and the child/teen will be allowed into private school. The next weekday, the accepted Sim will change into a uniform and then board the school bus as normal. If the time limit expires and the score has not been met, players can try again the next day.

Final Tips

• There are multiple Headmasters in a neighborhood; if "Invite Headmaster" is used multiple times, there will be a different one each time.
  • Each Headmaster has his own personality and interests, so Sims who have little success at schmoozing with one may do better with another.
• A Sim who has met a Headmaster through the scenario cannot directly call him on the phone, but he may call the Sim.
• If the player's Sim is pregnant and they want the child to get in to private school, making one of the parents study cooking and the other to get a nice job will improve their score in a future tour.