Question 1.13

1.13 Attending college in your state or in another state.

The U.S. Census Bureau collects a large amount of information concerning higher education.1 For example, the bureau provides a table that includes the following variables: state, number of students from the state who attend college, and number of students who attend college in their home state.

  1. What are the cases for this set of data?
  2. Is there a label variable? If yes, what is it?
  3. Identify each variable as categorical or quantitative.
  4. Consider a variable computed as the number of students in each state who attend college in the state divided by the total number of students from the state who attend college. Explain how you would use this variable to describe something about the states.

1.13

(a) The states are the cases. (b) The name of the state is the label variable. (c) Number of students from the state who attend college—quantitative, number of students who attend college in their home state—quantitative. (d) Answers will vary. This would tell you which states have large percentages of students that like to stay “at home” versus small percentages which indicate students’ preference to leave home to attend college.