Very impressive. Well done!

Radeon HD 5470 is an entry-level card for laptops. It's woefully insufficient for playing later releases such as M&G. You need to upgrade your system.

There's a couple of cut scenes that are new to University too...one when your Sim first moves into a dorm and another when they graduate (if you choose the Graduation party option) They are cheesy but never fail to amuse me 

I am very fond of the larger versions of the willow, maple and bay trees at pimp my sims http://www.pimp-my-sims.com/downloads/objects/build_mode/index.html

There are several important considerations when placing beach lots:
-One side must be placed against the road
-One side must be placed in water
-No more than half of the lot can be in water

According to the Wiki, when placing a pre-built beach lot, the slope from the road down to the beach that was used in the pre-built lot must also match the slope from the road to the beach where you are trying to place the lot. There is a tutorial that explains how to match the terrain and pre-built lot (and how to build beach lots using the terrain editor from Free Time) at
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=278903

It's called the 'Culinary Career' in the game. You can read more about it here http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Culinary

That mean Sims make mean snowmen 

Self-immoliation, back when I had only had the base game and Nightlife installed. She was on a balcony talking to a neighbour and next thing I knew there was a flash of light and all that was left was a pile of ashes. I was nervous playing for days after that.

...when you constantly stare at people's faces thinking how you could tweak them.

...when your 'friends' on Facebook from the Simming community outnumber your RL friends

...when your Facebook profile pic is your current fave Sim

Same. One of my most accomplished Science Sims then made a whole bunch of medicine, and then I used the Insimenator* to give Malcolm Landgraab the flu, and he drank one of the medicines and instantly became well. Which was equally as exciting.

*unsupported

I might stick it in a Science sims garage and have a play around with it tonight. At least it seems potentially more interesting than the The Gootentaugen Award for Excellence in Journalism. What a useless reward object that is...

I thought you could only use it to make potions to cure disease? Although it's years since I've tried as the object doesn't really suit the current decorating theme of any of my Sims' houses. 
Found a guide that may be useful here: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/sims-2/280683-career-rewards.html#post4613653
(It also says " If no one in your household is ill, then the get or give medicine interactions will not be available.")

I don't know about the hobby people as I don't have Freetime but I think Carlwashere probably means don't mess with the specials such as the Grim Reaper,  Social Workers or Repo Men for example. Those NPCs have their own preprogrammed actions and if you interfere with them the game goes into an infinite loop and the only way out is ctrl-alt-delete....if you're lucky. 

Fingers crossed you've found the culprit! 

Squinge's Pregnant Sims Wear Any Outfit is the first one that springs to mind...if it wasn't the AL version, of course.