HW #5: Sampling

Respond in concrete, specific terms. Remember that identifying your own limitations is often preferable to them begin spotted by someone else.

1. [20%] Imagine that you’re working for Clarkson as an analyst. Clarkson decided to survey a simple random sample of its alumni using a list that it maintains for fund-raising purposes. All alumni are kept on the list for five years after graduating. Then, only past donors are kept on the list. About 50% of graduates from the past decade replied, and the average (mean) salary calculated from the survey was $79,000. Your friend in marketing wants to use this to illustrate the superiority of the Clarkson education. Do you encourage your friend to publish (why?) or do you have reservations or suggestions [~1/2 page]?

2. [30%] Devise a research question for a qualitative study; your choice, it doesn’t need to be anything specific or justified. Then, determine a sampling strategy for the study and create a recruitment letter. See both the book and the lecture videos for examples of what recruitment materials might look like- for this case you can just put stand ins for things like the IRB chair’s name or phone number. E.g. just write [IRB CHAIR] instead of names. [~ 1 page]

3. [20%] Imagine that you’re a researcher that wants to understand the current Clarkson student body’s attitudes towards alcohol use using a survey. What sort of sampling methodology do you think would be most appropriate for studying this topic? Defend that choice [~1/2 page]

4. [15%] A spreadsheet is attached. From this, draw a simple random sample of 1,000 people. Upload a new spreadsheet with only your random sample included. Complete the table on the back of the assignment using the data characteristics summary in the spreadsheet and include it with your assignment.

BONUS (10%, max score is 100%): In a separate tab of the submitted spreadsheet, compile a stratified random sample, stratified by race. Your sample should be equal proportions White, Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American, and it should total to 500 cases.

5. [15%] At the end of the semester, Clarkson students are asked to complete course evaluations for faculty. In the past, these have been collected at the end of a class period. Recently, the university transitioned to implementing the evaluations online via peoplesoft instead. Consider the pros and cons of both data collection methods and give a recommendation for subsequent data collection. Remember that this question isn’t really about sampling, it’s about evaluating a data generation process (~1/2 page).

All length suggestions are based on standard margins, 12 point times new roman, and double spacing.

Enter your values for #4 here:

Question #4: Drawing a Random Sample
Data Characteristics	Population	Sample
Variable	Mean	Median	Mean	Median
Income	43.69	44	??	??
Age	911.57	906.148	??	??
Racial composition
Category	Count	%	Count	%
White	1282	27.53	??	??
Black	220	4.72	??	??
Latino	1522	32.68	??	??
Asian	1219	26.18	??	??
Native American	414	8.89	??	??

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