BUSINESS ANALYTICS

CASE
Harrigan University

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BACKGROUND
Harrigan University attempts to attract the highest quality students, and is interested in
determining whether they have been successful in maintaining these high academic recruiting
standards over time. In order to determine the same, Harrigan has gathered data on 178
applicants who were accepted into the university over the past several years.

Problem Statement: Harrigan is concerned that it is not getting enough of the best students, and
worse yet, it is concerned that many of these best students are going to Harrigan's main rival.

In order to analyze the same, we will use data on different parameters considered by Harrigan
during the admissions process, as well as the relative weightage of each in determining the
overall student ranking / score.

FACTORS CONSIDERED
In order to assess Harrigan’s concerns, we have gathered a random sample of 178 applicants
from all students offered admission by Harrigan and organized their data across a number of
quantifiable variables, including the following:

 Whether the applicant accepted Harrigan’s offer of admission;

 Whether the applicant enrolls at Harrigan’s main rival university;
 The number of high school clubs applicant served as an officer;
 The number of varsity letters applicant earned through participation in sports;
 The applicant's high school GPA;
 The applicant’s percentile (in terms of GPA) in his or her graduating class;
 The number of students in applicant's graduating class;
 The applicant's combined SAT score; and
 Harrigan’s “combined score” for weighing applicants’ quality, which is essentially a
weighted average of components of the overall high school performance and SAT scores.

We will analyze the trends in these variables across a number of questions we believe will make
an effective model for our investigation of the admissions process and provide valuable insight
for our next steps.

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ANALYSIS

Proportion of Applicants who accept Harrigan’s Offer of Admission

Based on our sample results, we are 95% confident that the average proportion of all students
accepting Harrigan’s offer of admission is between 50.6% and 65%. The combined scores of
applicants offered admission can be divided into quartiles, with scores of 330 and 375
representing the first and third quartiles, respectively. Our results for the proportions of the
students accepting Harrigan across different ranges of the data are shown in the following table:

Proportion of Students Accepting Offers of Admission

mean E (+/-)
All Students 57.87% 7.25%
Quartile 1 72.73% 13.16%
Quartiles 2 & 3 62.22% 10.02%
Quartile 4 34.09% 14.01%
(sample size: 178, 95% confidence in results)

As we can see from the table, Quartile 1, which represents students having Harrigan’s combined
score under 330, will accept an offer of admission approximately 59.57 to 85.89% of the time.
Students from Quartiles 2 and 3 who have a combined score between 330 and 375 will accept an
offer of admission approximately 52.21 to 72.24% of the time. Finally, students in the top
quartile who have a combined score above 375 will accept Harrigan’s offer of admission
approximately 20.08 to 48.10% of the time.

These results indicate that students offered admission at Harrigan who have lower combined
scores are more likely to accept an offer of admission than students who have higher combined
scores. In fact, it appears that less than half of the students with the highest combined scores
(above 375) will accept Harrigan’s offer of admission, and as few as one in five of these students
will accept Harrigan’s offer of admission in a given year.

Conclusions

While we seem to be enrolling many students with combined scores in the middle quartiles, there
is a reasonable concern that we are not having as many of the students from the top quartile
accept Harrigan’s offer of admission, with the range for the proportion of such students enrolling
at Harrigan being significantly lower than the mean for all students.

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Proportion of Students who accept an Offer of Admission from Harrigan’s Rival over
Harrigan

Based on our results, an average of 15.73% of all students offered admission at Harrigan will
instead choose Harrigan’s main rival. We are 95% confident that no fewer than 10.38% but no
more than 21.08% choose Harrigan’s main rival. However, when we halve the data and consider
students with Harrigan’s combined score below the median of 356 separately from students with
a combined score above the median, we can see a clearer picture of which students choose
Harrigan’s main rival.

Students with combined scores below the median tend not to pick Harrigan’s main rival over
Harrigan. We are 95% certain that between 0% and 7.12% of such students accept an offer with
the rival school, and between 18.75% and 37.43% of students with combined scores above the
median choose the rival school instead of Harrigan.

Considerations

It may be useful to survey Harrigan students with combined scores above and below the median
to determine whether they also received offers of admission at Harrigan’s main rival. With this
information it could provide some insight into whether or not students with combined scores
below the median are generally offered admission at Harrigan and its main rival or just offered
admission at Harrigan.

Conclusions

The sample data suggests that we most likely have a legitimate concern that Harrigan’s main
rival is attractive to students above the median combined score, and that Harrigan may be losing
students to this school.

Averages for Students accepting Harrigan’s Offer of Admission for High School GPA, SAT
score, and Harrigan’s Combined Score
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We used a calculating tool to compare the means Harrigan combined score, high school GPA,
and SAT score for students who accepted Harrigan’s offer of admission to the same means for
students who did not accept Harrigan’s offer of admission. We obtained the following results:

Means and confidence intervals for applicants enrolling at Harrigan:

Combined Score GPA SAT

Conf. Intervals (One- Combined Score - GPA -
Sample) Yes Yes SAT - Yes
Sample Size 103 103 103
3.271 1180.2
Sample Mean 345.72 7 4
0.301
Sample Std Dev 30.02 3 134.65
Confidence Level
(Mean) 95.0% 95.0% 95.0%
Degrees of Freedom 102 102 102
3.212 1153.9
Lower Limit 339.85 9 3
3.330 1206.5
Upper Limit 351.59 6 6

Mean and confidence intervals for applicants who did not accept Harrigan’s offer of admission:

Combined Score GPA SAT

Conf. Intervals (One- GPA -
Sample) Combined Score - No No SAT - No
Sample Size 75 75 75
3.354 1185.8
Sample Mean 366.00 4 8
0.293
Sample Std Dev 31.88 1 140.20
Confidence Level
(Mean) 95.0% 95.0% 95.0%
Degrees of Freedom 74 74 74
3.287 1153.6
Lower Limit 358.67 0 2
3.421 1218.1
Upper Limit 373.33 8 4

Next, we ran analysis on the differences in these means, to determine whether the means were
different for applicants enrolling in Harrigan (“yes”) and applicants who chose another school
(“no”).

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 Charts with results for this analysis appear on the next page.
SAT Score High School GPA
SAT SAT GPA GPA
Sample Summaries SAT - Yes SAT - No Sample Summaries GPA - Yes GPA - No
Sample Size 103 75 Sample Size 103 75
Sample Mean 1180.24 1185.88 Sample Mean 3.2717 3.3544
Sample Std Dev 134.65 140.20 Sample Std Dev 0.3013 0.2931

Equal Unequal Equal Unequal

Conf. Intervals (Difference of Means) Variances Variances Conf. Intervals (Difference of Means) Variances Variances
Confidence Level 95.0% 95.0% Confidence Level 95.0% 95.0%
Sample Mean Difference -5.64 -5.64 Sample Mean Difference -0.0827 -0.0827
Standard Error of Difference 20.79758611 20.93085152 Standard Error of Difference 0.045218216 0.045021266
Degrees of Freedom 176 156 Degrees of Freedom 176 162
Lower Limit -46.68203292 -46.98173109 Lower Limit -0.171892132 -0.171556632
Upper Limit 35.40746981 35.70716799 Upper Limit 0.006587277 0.006251778

Equality of Variances Test Equality of Variances Test

Ratio of Sample Variances 0.9224 Ratio of Sample Variances 1.0568
p-Value 0.7000 p-Value 0.8080

Harrigan's Combined Score

Combined Score Combined Score
Sample Summaries Combined Score - Yes Combined Score - No
Sample Size 103 75
Sample Mean 345.72 366.00
Sample Std Dev 30.02 31.88

Equal Unequal
Conf. Intervals (Difference of Means) Variances Variances
Confidence Level 95.0% 95.0%
Sample Mean Difference -20.28 -20.28
Standard Error of Difference 4.67728392 4.721881141
Degrees of Freedom 176 154
Lower Limit -29.51233405 -29.6095732
Upper Limit -11.05077274 -10.95353359

Equality of Variances Test

Ratio of Sample Variances 0.8868
p-Value 0.5703

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Conclusions

The results of the analysis tool used to evaluate the differences in the mean combined score,
mean high school GPA, and mean SAT score for applicants who accepted admission at Harrigan
or chose another school demonstrate that there is likely no difference in the same measurements
for the population. Therefore, we can conclude that students who accept an offer of admission
with Harrigan are academically similar to the students who choose another school, as the means
for these measures (when “yes” versus “no” applicants are compared) are not statistically
different.

Harrigan University should not be concerned about losing quality applicants to other schools,
since the students who enroll in Harrigan are academically similar to those who decline an offer
of admission with Harrigan.

Proportion of Harrigan Students with great involvement in extracurricular activities

during high school

Applicants’ extracurricular activities were listed in two categories, sports, and clubs. Students
earned a point for each varsity letter earned for the sports category, and one for each club in
which the student served as an officer. To determine whether Harrigan was attractive to students
with heavy involvement in extracurricular activities, we measured the applicants who accepted
Harrigan’s offer of admission.

We obtained the proportion of Harrigan students with “great involvement in clubs” (having a
club score of 2 or more), and students with “great involvement in sports” (having a sports score
of 4 or more). We also made an “activity” score, which was the sum of the scores from the two
categories, as some students were involved in both clubs and sports, but without necessarily
having great involvement in either. For our “activity” proportions, we measured 2 possible
numbers for being involved heavily in “activities,” students with activity scores of 3 or greater,
and students with activity scores of 4 or greater. Our results are shown in the following table;
the margin for error is 95% certain.

Harrigan Students' Extracurriculur Activity

Activity Mean E (+/-)
Great Inolvement in Clubs 80.58% 7.64%
Great Involvement in Sports 75.73% 8.28%
Either, 3 or more 99.03% 1.89%
Either, 4 or more 93.20% 4.86%
(sample size: 178, 95% confidence in results)

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Conclusions

Nearly every Harrigan student is greatly involved in clubs and/or sports during high school, so
we assume that Harrigan is still an attractive school for high school students who are greatly
involved in extracurricular activities.

High school size and class rank

Currently, Harrigan’s combined score considers the size of an applicant’s high school class when
considering their percentile or class rank. The score includes a weight giving favor to applicants
who are ranked higher at larger schools. We analyzed data on class rank and school size in order
to determine if this method of computation for the combined score correlates with more students
from larger schools enrolling in Harrigan.

We divided the data by high school class size into two groups, small schools and large schools.
Small schools were schools with a class size smaller than the median size of 282, and large
schools had class sizes greater than the median. For each school size, the percentile was
observed and median found. Students above the median percentile in each size of school were
considered to be ranked “high,” and students with percentiles below the respective median
percentile were considered to be ranked “low.”

The following table shows the proportion of students who accept an offer of admission from
Harrigan from each of the four categories listed:

Harrigan Students' High School Size and Class Rank

Size/Percentile Mean E (+/-)
small/low 74.4% 12.5%
small/high 61.9% 14.7%
large/low 46.5% 15.0%
large/high 47.8% 14.4%
(95% confidence in results)

Conclusions

Harrigan seems to be attracting more students from smaller high schools overall, regardless of
class rank.