The North Quad Struggle

Nathalie Ramirez, Peter Jebsen, Nick Wright

Does where you live at CMC affect your GPA?

• Freshman year, dorm placement is random• Because assignment is random, differences in

GPA will be due purely to environmental factors• Sophomore year, students choose their dorm• Assignment is no longer random, and students

inherent abilities also become a factor

Hypotheses

• Students who live in North Quad will have a lower GPA than students who live in South or Mid Quad

• This will be true both freshman and sophomore year

Conceptions about the Quads

North Quad stereotypes:-Loud-Social-Open, conducive to partying-Dirty-Residents are raging alcoholics who spend all of their time partying, and never do school work.

Mid & South Quad stereotypes:-Quiet-Anti-Social-Indoor buildings, less conducive to partying-Clean (more for South Quad)-Residents are nerdy introverts who never go out, and always have their heads in a book studying

Fun Fact* Out of 32 parties this year, North Quad has hosted 25, with South Quad and Mid

Quad hosting only 7 combined

Research Design

• We asked a sample of 86 CMC students from all class years to fill out a survey:

• SAT Score• Freshman fall GPA, freshman dorm• Sophomore fall GPA, sophomore dorm• Republican or Democrat?• iPhone or Blackberry?• Average number of nights drinking per week

Summary Statistics

Mean SAT I Score 2085

Mean GPA Freshman fall 10.36

Mean GPA Sophomore fall 10.57

Average Nights Out 2.3

Percentage who are Republicans 24%

Percentage who own a Blackberry 24%

Percentage who own an iPhone 24%

So how ‘bout those North Quadders?

Average GPA for freshmen in North Quad 9.99

Average GPA for sophomores in North Quad 10.55

Regression Analysis: Freshmen  Coefficients t Stat P-value

Intercept 8.79 6.75 2.97E-09

SAT 0.000843 1.38 0.17183

North Quad Residency -0.561 -2.35 0.0214

Nights Out 0.00214 0.0190 0.985

iPhone 0.106 0.389 0.698

Blackberry -0.159 -0.567 0.573

Republican -0.0571 -0.217 0.829

Multiple R 0.313

R Square 0.0981

Adjusted R Square 0.024

Standard Error 0.986

Observations 80

F 1.32

Significance F 0.258

•Living In North Quad your freshman year has a significant negative effect on GPA•Because dorm placement is random, this effect is a pure Residence Effect•Having a Blackberry produces a negative effect on GPA, while having an iPhone produces a positive effect (!)

Regression Analysis: Sophomores  Coefficients t Stat P-value

Intercept 7.47 4.86 1.67E-05

SAT 0.00154 2.16 0.036739

North Quad Residency 0.165 0.554 0.582

Nights Out -0.128 -1.02 0.316

iPhone 0.219 0.515 0.609

Blackberry 0.0215 0.0612 0.952

Republican 0.0712 0.201 0.842

Multiple R 0.349

R Square 0.122

Adjusted R Square -0.00370

Standard Error 0.995

Observations 49

F 0.971

Significance F 0.457

•The Choice Effect shows the effect on GPA of being a student who chooses to live in North Quad•The Total Effect (XT) is a combination of the Residence Effect ( X R) and the Choice Effect (XC), such that

XR + XC = XT

•Residence Effect (XR) = 0.561•Total Effect (XT) = 0.165•The Choice Effect:

XT – XR = XC

0.165 – (-0.561) = 0.726

•Students who choose to live in North Quad are inherently able to attain GPAs 0.726 higher than students who do not choose to live there•This suggests that students choose to live in North Quad because they know they can perform well despite the detrimental environmental factors

So…

+ +

= -0.78 = TOUGH LUCK

(North Quad Freshmen)

-0.159 -0.0571-0.561