CAFFEINE GROUP

Numerous health studies have demonstrated the damaging effects of
excessive caffeine consumption on cardiac wellbeing in addition to
psychological and mental health. There is significant concern that
students today consume large amounts of caffeine to keep up with their
academic workload or enance their performance in soprts activiites. We
have surveyed the Carnegie Mellon University undergradate population
in order to determine types anda mounts of students' caffeine
consumption. Further, we measured students' perception of acceptable
caffeine usage.

UNDERGRAD INVOLVEMENT

We are attempting to quantify the factors that have an effect on
campus involvement of Undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon.

PITTSBURGH BUSES

Many students and Professors at Carnegie Mellon rely on the public
transit system to get to work, however students frequently complain
about the PAT bus system. The most common complaints are late buses,
inaccurate schedules, and the frustration that occurs after waiting
for a bus only to have multiple buses of the same route arrive at the
same time1. Waiting wastes time, causes frustration, and in the long
run could lead commuters to choose to find a way to travel that
doesn’t involve public transportation. To aim of this study is to
first measure the degree to which these complaints are accurate, and
if buses are systematically late develop a model for predicting
expected arrival time. This study will be build on a strong general
literature base on public transportation and investigate the accuracy
of bus time tables for the Forbes and Morewood intersection which is
the most commonly used bus stop for commuters at Carnegie Mellon
University. Bus departure times will be observed and compared to
posted bus schedules. A number of potential factors that influence bus
punctuality will also be measured including the weather, the time of
day, and the level of light. Using these factors and the information
collected on bus arrival times, a model will be created to predict
when a bus will arrive given the scheduled arrival time.

STUDENTS CHANGING MAJORS

Selecting a major is an important decision for an undergraduate. What
a student chooses to study often determines their future career by
providing them with a knowledge base that will enable them to succeed
in that field. At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), students are
allowed to change majors as they wish in accordance to certain
influences in their life, including but not limited to perceived
academic success, future job prospects, personal interests, and social
pressures. This study aims to determine the retention rates of each
major at CMU, which majors are most popular to switch to, and the
prevailing factors that influence a students decision to change or not
to change their major. Our results lend insight to what CMU
departments can do to affect the popularity and retention rates of
their majors by identifying what influences an undergraduate's
decision on changing majors the most.

FACULTY VIEWS OF ATTENDANCE AND PERFORMANCE

We are conducting a survey of members of the Carnegie Mellon faculty
community in order to determine if there is a relationship between
whether or not a class has mandatory attendance and students’
performance in the class. This topic is interesting because there is a
large disparity in the way classes are structured across various
departments of the university, and thus it is possible for two
students of different majors to have entirely opposite classroom
experiences. This survey is interested in determining if requiring
attendance has an effect on or can improve students’ performance in
classes. We are distributing a self-administered online survey to
Carnegie Mellon faculty who taught undergraduate courses in the Fall
2010 semester. Data collected about each course includes department,
class size, attendance policy information, and distribution of final
grades. We will compare the distribution of final grades for
attendance mandatory versus attendance optional courses to determine
the effect of attendance policy on student performance. Although we
are still in the data collection process, we expect to find that
attendance mandatory courses will have better student
performance. While we will definitely be able to make conclusions
within academic departments, we also hope to generalize these
comparisons within and across colleges.

UNDERGRAD PROSPECTS AFTER GRADUATION

Given the recent scandal revealing the over optimistic prospects for
graduating law school students, the statistics produced by
universities and published in the US News and World Report are being
brought into question. These misleading statistics encourage hopeful
JD seekers to pursue startling loans with the expectation that their
debts will be paid off with relative ease upon graduation thanks to
the supposed 84% job placement ratings.

While the production of undergraduate college rankings has often been
criticized for its accuracy in measuring the actual quality of
education, Carnegie Mellon University and other universities have long
bolstered their reputations for producing intelligent, motivated, and
successful students with the use of these faulty lists. However, this
raises the question of how measurably successful Carnegie Mellon
University undergraduate alumni are. Where do alumni relocate? What
occupations do they practice? What graduate programs do they choose to
pursue? And, according to the common man’s perception of comparative
success, how do Carnegie Mellon University undergraduate alumni stack
up when compared to graduates of other universities?

This study analyzes the data collected and evaluated by the Carnegie
Mellon University Career Center
(http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/students_alumni/post-grad-survey/index.html)
in order to answer such questions as: Are alumni—successful by
Carnegie Mellon standards—well received by employers and graduate
programs? Do alumni display a tendency to remain near to Pittsburgh or
to relocate elsewhere? Do alumni successfully attain employment
relevant to their subject(s) of study? How accurately do national and
international rankings systems gauge the value of a Carnegie Mellon
Undergraduate degree?  

The data collected from the Carnegie Mellon University Career Center
is will also be used to test the effectiveness of various survey
methods. The Career Center has nearly perfected its collection data
collection methods as response rates generally run somewhere in the
90th percentile (with the exception of College of Fine Arts classes
where response rates are as low as the 70th percentile). This has
yielded results near to that of census data. As such, this study
assesses the effectiveness of certain types of sampling schemes
(stratified and clustered sampling) to produce results representative
of the target population so that future statistical researchers can
visually apprehend the significance of various survey designs. Few
have had the data provided or the opportunity to conduct a study on
accurate census data in order to optimize survey results to population
parameters.

FACULTY VIEWS OF PLUS/MINUS GRADING

In Carnegie Mellon University, students work very hard to get high
GPAs. Students are concerned about GPAs since they have high impact on
chances of getting a job or admissions to graduate schools. Carnegie
Mellon University currently implements grading system without plus or
minus letter grades. Students’ opinions on the current grading system
vary. Previous research from Carnegie Mellon students from “Sampling,
Survey and Society” in 2008, surveyed 341 students’ opinion regarding
implementation of plus/minus grading in CMU. In this study, 18 percent
of the respondents supported the implementation of plus/minus system,
68 percent were against it and 14 percent were undecided. Our research
analyzes faculties’ attitude toward the implementation of plus/minus
grading system. We distributed on-line surveys to randomly selected
578 faculties. The survey questions constitute several demographic
questions as well as view on current grading system in CMU and
implementation of plus/minus grading system. After carrying out an
exploratory data analysis, we ran analysis of variance on our
data. Then, we compared our result to the previous research done in
2008. Our result suggests that faculties from different departments
have varying opinions regarding the implementation of plus/minus
system. 

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