Don't know if it'll help you or not but there's a mod... I believe at MTS... called "Normal Speed Arrival At Community Lots"... I have all the EPs and SPs (except the Holiday stuff) and it works great in my game... I know exactly what my sim is up to when they arrive... in fact by the time I zoom in on them they're still standing by their car or by the payphone not doing anything yet... but thinking about it.

Anyway not sure if it is located at MTS.... just google exactly "Normal Speed Arrival At Community Lots"

I grow up dormies all the time using just the blender tree.... when my sim graduates and moves to the neighborhood I invite the dormie over... click the pause button and go to the sim blender and select aging... age to adult... (name of the sim)... and poof the dormie grows up and then I greet them... the dormie as an adult automatically becomes a townie as an adult. I find that also when you do this with the blender tree... when someone marries the newly grown up dormie/townie... they have a memory or growing up well and graduating too.... just a thought instead of using yet another mod... everyone seems to have the sims blender.

There's something called a milkbottle Apartment Door changer.... I think it's at MTS... it allows you to use any door as an apartment door including custom doors that you have... you place the milkbottle outside the apartment door I believe... google or check MTS for something called a milkbottle apartment door changer.. not sure if that's what you're after... but that's what I've seen.