BH Statistics

November 10, 1999

 

Predicting Reputation Ratings

The data in Colleges 1-230 are from the US News &World Report. It is data on what they considered to be the top 230 colleges and universities in the United States. All the variables in this data set are defined in the Appendix.

One of the variables in this data set is called Reputation. It is the mean rating (1 lowest to 5 highest) given to a college by faculty and administrators at other institutions. We do not know the thought processes of these people; all we know is the mean of the ratings they gave to each college.

We also have data in the file named CollegesAll. This data is on 1303 colleges and universities in the United States. It is not quite the same as Colleges 1-230. Not only does it contain data on colleges that are not in the top 230. Each data set has information that is not contained in the other. One item of information that we have on the Colleges 1-230 that we don't have in CollegesAll is each college's reputation rating.

Your task is to come up with a way to calculate a reputation rating for schools that don't have one from information that you have on the schools, and to do so in a way that the ratings are consistent with those that were given to schools having one. Put another way, if you use your method to assign reputation ratings to schools that already have one, then the ones you assign by using your method should be consistent with the ratings they actually have. 

 

Appendices

Appendix I: Variables in Colleges 1-230

 

College

  • College name. The college's name (and state, if ambiguous).
  •  

    Reputation

  • Academic reputation. The average rating of the quality of a school’s academic programs as evaluated by officials at similar institutions. The survey was conducted in the spring of 1998.
  •  

    AcceptRate

  • Acceptance rate. The ratio of the number of students admitted to the number of applicants for the fall 1997 admission.
  •  

    GradRate

  • Graduation rate. Percent of freshman who graduated within a six-year period, averaged over the classes entering between 1988 and 1991.
  •  

    %ClassesUnder20

  • Class size, 1-19 students. The percentage of undergraduate classes, excluding class sections, with fewer than 20 students enrolled during the fall of 1997.
  •  

    %ClassesOver50

  • Class size, 50+ students. The percentage of undergraduate classes, excluding class sections, with 50 students or more enrolled during the fall of 1997.
  •  

    %FullTimeFac

  • Full-time faculty. The proportion of total faculty employed on a full-time basis during the 1997 academic year.
  •  

    %TopTen%

  • High school class standing. The proportion of students enrolled for the fall 1997 academic year who graduated in the top 10 percent (for national universities and liberal arts colleges) or 25 percent (for regional universities and liberal arts colleges) of their high school class.
  •  

    SAT.ACT75%

  • Highest Quartile Test Scores. The lowest SAT or ACT score in the top quartile of entering freshmen. That is, the score that is the lowest score made by a student in the highest 25% of SAT or ACT scores among freshman at that school. Scores less than or equal to 36 are combined ACT scores. Scores above 100 are combined SAT scores.
  •  

    SAT.ACT25%

  • Lowest Quartile Test Scores. The highest SAT or ACT score in the bottom quartile of entering freshmen. That is, the score that is the highest score made by a student in the lowest 25% of SAT or ACT scores among freshman at that school. Scores less than or equal to 36 are combined ACT scores. Scores above 100 are combined SAT scores.
  •  

    AlumGiv

  • Alumni giving. Percent of undergraduate alumni who donated money to the college or university, averaged over the 1996 and 1997 rates.

     

     

  • Appendix II: Variables in Colleges All

     

     

     

    College

  • College name. The college's name (and state, if ambiguous).
  •  

    State

  • State of college. The state in which the college is located.
  •  

    Pub/Priv

  • Public or Private. Whether the college is a publicly or privately funded.
  •  

    AcceptRate

  • Acceptance rate. The ratio of the number of students admitted to the number of applicants for the fall 1997 admission.
  •  

    GradRate

  • Graduation rate. Percent of freshman who graduated within a six-year period, averaged over the classes entering between 1988 and 1991.
  •  

    %FullTimeStu

  • Percent of full time students. The percent of the undergraduate students who are attending school full time (at least 12 term hours per term).
  •  

    %TopTen%

  • High school class standing. The proportion of students enrolled for the fall 1997 academic year who graduated in the top 10 percent (for national universities and liberal arts colleges) or 25 percent (for regional universities and liberal arts colleges) of their high school class.
  •  

    %FacPhD

  • Percent of Faculty with Ph.D. The percent of the institution's faculty who have the highest available degree in their field of expertise.
  •  

    SAT.ACT75%

  • Highest Quartile Test Scores. The lowest SAT or ACT score in the top quartile of entering freshmen. That is, the score that is the lowest score made by a student in the highest 25% of SAT or ACT scores among freshman at that school. Scores less than or equal to 36 are combined ACT scores. Scores above 100 are combined SAT scores.
  •  

    SAT.ACT25%

  • Lowest Quartile Test Scores. The highest SAT or ACT score in the bottom quartile of entering freshmen. That is, the score that is the highest score made by a student in the lowest 25% of SAT or ACT scores among freshman at that school. Scores less than or equal to 36 are combined ACT scores. Scores above 100 are combined SAT scores.
  •  

    AlumGiv

  • Alumni giving. Percent of undergraduate alumni who donated money to the college or university, averaged over the 1996 and 1997 rates.