Jobs or Clubs? Deciding on Priorities

Jobs or Clubs? Deciding on Priorities

A recent study held by two Kalamazoo College students surveyed how the current GPA of students is affected by co-curricular activities such as work, club/organizations, and other forms out of class activities. 30 people were surveyed and results showed that club activities were the most detrimental to their current college GPA. On the other hand, students who worked had little to no effect on the current GPA. It should be interesting to note, however, that whenever students had a choice on an activity (studying, clubs, etc.) the number of hours worked normally went into decline in comparison. The most interesting finding though, had to be that number of hours studied had a (small) negative correlation to current GPA, and that the strongest correlation to current GPA was high school GPA. A troubling fact, however, is that while these findings are intriguing, one must wonder how accurate they are with such a small sample size.

Tips for Business Stats Project

The business statistics project isn't something to mess with - it's large, requires a lot of organization, and can take a lot of work. But there's no reason to worry, as long as you prepare yourself accordingly.

Follow the time table for due dates and such and you'll be good to go. Design your survey early and think of variables that would relate to one another, like GPA and studying or hours worked and money spent. It's all about the relationships - you don't need twenty variables to work with if you only plan on using five. You're going to have to fill out the data sheets, and the more variables you include in your survey, the more work you're making for yourself.

Also, be careful about who you survey. Make sure they're people you can actually access. If you're looking to do an ambitious, off-campus survey, be certain that you can get off campus to do it. It's easy to get caught up and feel like you can do the greatest survey ever, but it takes a lot more work than it seems in the beginning.

To add to that theme, make sure you start analyzing your data as soon as you get it all typed into your computer, and begin typing your final report early. You'll have a lot of data to get through, and if you wait until the last couple of days to do it, you'll be up late each night crunching numbers. The project itself is all easy and self explanatory, it can just be time consuming.

Lastly, be sure to split up tasks between you and your partner. If you don't think they're the greatest at stats, have them do a bunch of the easier calculations and then do the harder parts yourself. The point is to make sure each of you does a fair share of work.

If you're looking for topics for your survey, remember that things like GPA, work hours, hours sleeping and athletics are all easy to find relationships with. In the end, they may not be statistically significant, but that's an interesting finding too! Really any topic can be interesting, and the K College community is good to use - it's convenient and can teach you a lot about your own school.

Good luck!

Are men more concerned with their future careers than women?

The findings of this study indicate men are more likely than women to select a college based on the school’s academic reputation and its ability to prepare graduates for post graduate work (either the labor market, or graduate school). Statistics are presented with 95% confidence and are based on a random survey of 98 Kalamazoo College students living in campus dormitories. Hypothesis testing indicated that, on average, men weighted Kalamazoo College’s academic reputation as a more important factor influencing their decision to attend the college than women. Hypothesis testing also indicated that, on average, men weighted Kalamazoo College’s ability to prepare graduates for post graduate work as a more important factor influencing their decision to attend the college than women. To really strengthen the association between gender and reasons for selection colleges, the findings of this study need to be replicated by similar studies from schools across the country. This data could then be used with data looking at percent of men attending college vs. percent of women attending college, and percent of men with a job vs. percent of women with a job to determine whether or not men are actually more concerned with their future careers than women.

Break the “K” Bubble, Make More Money

Break the “K” Bubble, Make More Money

A recent study done at Kalamazoo College shows that students that work off campus make significantly more than those that work on campus. The “K” bubble really is limiting students’ opportunities and most students are falling into this trap. According to the study 93% of employed students work on campus, and all on campus jobs make only minimum wage. Those students who do work off campus make more money and work more hours. The same study also indicates that there is no correlation between employment and academic performance; the study claims, even after accounting for random error, that 90% of students do not find their employment to have any adverse effects on their studies. This means that for students who want to make money they should look off campus for jobs and proves that it really is worth it to get out of the “K” bubble.

Advice for Future Students

When doing this project, make sure that you are continuously working on this project. I heard this from many former students and I kind of shrugged it off and thought that the project couldn't be that bad. I was wrong, this project was huge and will take a lot of time to do. Spread your work out over the quarter and you will not have to deal with the stress of trying to complete this project the night before it's due. Also pay attention to the due date so that none of the assignments sneak up on you like the final paper did for most of my class.

Some possible topics for study could involve the effects that high school GPA and ACT scores have on people's scholarships. You could also compare the scholarships awarded to non-athletes compared to athletes to check for any favoritism. There is a wide range of possible topics so keep an open mind.

Kalamazoo college shows why they are number one

In recent weeks a survey was passed out by two Kalamazoo college students, attempting to answer a popular question that is asked around campus " why do students go to Kalamazoo college". The survey was done in a very interesting way, the two students mission wasn't to see see if financial aid was the reason they came here or was it the athletics, their mission was to see if the fact that Kalamazoo College's academic reputation was the motive, and which it was. The survey was quite interesting it asked numerous question, about K's academic reputation and it also asked what influenced you to come to K.

From the study the two students were able to conduct a very popular survey they were able to put out 115 surveys and they received 98 of the surveys back, which is a 89% response rate. After looking at the data, the two students were able to test their hypothesis of students coming to K for the academic reputation, from the data their hypothesis was correct that the majority of students attend Kalamazoo College because they believe it will prepare them for Graduate school and that also by attending K it will lead to people getting a job once they leave K. on a scale of 1-4 the average for students attending K because they believe they will get into a good Graduate school was a 4. On the same scale the average for students who believe that k alumni get good jobs when they leave was a 4.17 which was the highest averages fro all of the data collected.

After conducting the survey the students can say with confidence that getting into a good Graduate school and getting a good job once your an alumni of k are two of the main reason why people choose to attend Kalamazoo College

What’s next after K-ollege?

A recent study titled “What’s next after K” shows that college level education is important and worth the investment. The study carried out by two Business Statistics students at Kalamazoo College set out to find out the benefits of completing four years at Kalamazoo College considering the College’s reputation of having a high cost of attendance. This was done by comparing students’ financial aid packages and scholarships to their projected student loan debts by their graduation. The study, which was conducted on 37 Kalamazoo College students’ comprised of only juniors and seniors who are already planning for their life after college and in the best position to access the costs and benefits of attending K-College.

The study found out that the average amount of debt that K-College students will have by the time of their graduation is 50% less than the average amount of debt carried by graduates in the state of Michigan. Compared to the average debt of students for the whole of the state of Michigan is which is $25,675, the average student debt of Kalamazoo college students was found to be $9,621. Among the 37 students, the majority of 79% said that they would not have any debts by the time they graduate. In respect to their plans for life after College, about 60% said that they planned to go graduate school upon graduation while another 27% said they would be start working immediately after College. Only 3% of the students said that student debt would affect their plans to go to graduate/professional sschool. In the survey, participants of the study were asked how satisfied they were with their K-College experience and 84% said that they were satisfied with the overall k-college experience.

Despite the many rising concerns in the rising student loan debts in many American colleges, Kalamazoo College seems to be fairing well because of the impressive financial help they afford their students. The study showed that 68% of the participants had scholarships with an average of $24,084 worth per academic year. The study also showed that the college prepares its students so well in the four years so that they can have good job prospects. 69% of the participants had already taken part in internships and

The findings of this study clearly show that the students at Kalamazoo College think that the cost of attendance at K-College does not at all outweigh the benefits, which the students gain from the four-year education there.