A University System Enrolling Hundreds of Thousands of Students Is

question 118

Short Answer

A university system enrolling hundreds of thousands of students is considering a change in the way students pay for their education. Currently, the students pay $55 per credit hour. The university system administrators are contemplating charging each student a set fee of $750 per quarter, regardless of how many credit hours each takes. To see if this proposal would be economically feasible, the administrators would like to know how many credit hours, on the average, each student takes per quarter. A random sample of 250 students yields a mean of 14.1 credit hours per quarter and a standard deviation of 2.3 credit hours per quarter. Suppose the administration wanted to estimate the mean to within 0.1 hours at 95% reliability and assumed that the sample standard deviation provided a good estimate for the population standard deviation. How large a total sample would they need to take?

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Definitions:

Behaviorism

A theory of learning that emphasizes the importance of observable actions and behaviors, discounting mental activities.

Psychoanalytic Theory

A psychological framework originated by Sigmund Freud that emphasizes unconscious psychological processes (e.g., desires and fears) in shaping human behavior and personality.

Evolutionary Theory

A scientific theory explaining the process of natural selection and how it leads to complexity and diversity in the biological world.

Genetic Make-Up

The unique combination of genes inherited from both parents that determines the biological characteristics and traits of an individual.