Join the Campus Contest?

karen lorraine is hosting a new contest! The premise is building a college campus. This fits in quite nicely with one of my own projects, so I am highly considering entering. I've got some reservations about it though. The first round is building a dorm, it's pretty basic and a great place to start. The biggest problem with it though, is how small it is! It's only 2 floors and a tiny footprint at that, my other two dorms are MUCH larger. I've managed to stuff 8 sims into this tiny dorm, but my Dabney dorm could technically house 32, and Calhoun (shown below) would be able to hold 48 if I furnished all the floors. The other big issues is she is requiring that your university be themed either arts, science, or sports. The university I'm working on constructing has a very nice blend of all of those! Based on the buildings she is going to have us make, I've ruled out the sciences. From there though, it looks like we will have choices for the remaining 5 rounds:

• Library (sciency)
  
• One-Stop Shop
• Coffee Shop
• Park* this would be awesome!
• House (dull)
  
• Performing Venue (artsy) ooh this!
  
• Art Gallery (artsy)
  
• Fitness Center* ✓
• Bar* ✓
• Games Room*

I have some pretty big visions for my hood. The idea behind my university is actually having the college classroom buildings, so I'll have a large art college, a music college, a teaching hospital, and *very* big sports complexes. I don't really have some of these tinier spaces included, but I really ought to, as they add character. If the shells for the lots aren't big enough, I won't be able to do the Music Hall or Art College the way I want to.

I'm leaning more toward the sporty and generic stuff right now because I know that's my real weakness in the first place, and I can probably get away with doing those on these smaller lots. Maybe that should be my plan. Purposely pick the weakest link and use this to make it stronger.

Right now, in this hood I only have Uni and IKEA, but I'm really thinking I ought to include FreeTime as a full requirement. My dorms are *really* boring looking right now, and that's not going to win me any decorating points.

FT has a ton of fantastic clutter in addition to having lots of sports and art things. I was going to need it for more than a few of my key buildings anyways, I am thinking about biting the bullet and just requiring it outright. I also really miss OFB with its stages and elevators. Oh. Eff. No stages, how am I going to do music venues without stages? Maybe FT included that? /me crosses fingers.

Edit: Thank you jones! Making this first shell into a frat instead of a dorm will work SO MUCH BETTER for me. Now I'm excited to get going on this contest.