COLLEGE ACCEPTANCES REPORT

Name: Carmen Chen

Instructor: Douglas Brown

Dear

In this assignment that you have given me, I was told to figure out which students would

be best fit to enter the college. In order for me to make that conclusion, I was given a set of

thirteen variables from a file called MIDWEST SCHOLASTIC FILE.

Using the data from the file, I first considered each variable separately. This information

is found in Part B. I found that there were more females on our hands than males. Most of them

entering were senior with an interest in A&S College with a potential major in E.E. (electrical

education), although the second most potential major was an undecided major.

I decided that you would accept students that were doing well therefore, in Part C; I

created box plots and scatter plot to determine the correlation between the two variables. The

variables that I picked were high school percentile (HSP), grade point average (GPA), English,

Math, Computers, and total amount of credits.

You may be wondering why I choose only these six out of the other thirteen variables.

This is because these six variables are quantitative instead of qualitative. Put in easier terms,

their data is in numbers while qualitative are descriptions.

In findings from part C (box plots and scatter plots), I paired credits and gpa, age and

credit, hsp and gpa, English and math, English and computers and age and gpa. From the

pairings I gathered that age an older age tend to have more credits than younger age groups.

However even though the scatter plot may say more credits will have a higher chance of getting

a higher GPA, some people will have credits for some classes but barely pass for those classes. A

higher HSP standing usually meant a higher GPA as well. Also, English students who had a

higher grade usually had a higher grade in computers and math. I can safely conclude that it is
best to select students with a higher GPA, higher HSP standing, younger age group (late teens –

early twenties) and a higher English grade. I would also remind you to interview these students

because correlation doesn’t lead to causation and a higher grade doesn’t mean a smart student.

They could’ve cheated in all their classes and obtained a high GPA and a more dedicated student

who worked hard could’ve gotten a lower score but know more than a student who had a higher

score but cheated. These are the hidden factors we need to take into account and numbers are

only part of the decisions to take these students in. Thank you for reading and I hope you choose

carefully. The student’s future is in your hands now.