J. T. MATH 240

The purpose was to discover:  What factors affect the major an individual chooses:  Gender  Hometown  Involvement in sports  Whether or not they are planning to attend graduate school Hypotheses:  An individual's involvement in sports and their major are related (dependent)  An individual’s gender and their major are not related (independent)  Rural students would choose different majors than urban students (dependent)  An individual’s major and whether they are planning to attend graduate school are related (dependent)

 Data Collection:  Asked demographic questions  Gender  Year in school  Hometown and rural or city area  Asked about courses of study and plans for the future  Major  If they had a minor, and if they did what it was  Whether they plan to attend graduate school  Other  Their involvement in sports  Whether they took time off before attending school  Why they chose their major

 Used a convenience sampling method  Handed surveys out to students in residence halls, the wellness center, in classes, and elsewhere  Did not choose specific students (asked everybody) in order to ensure that I had a fairly good representation of students at MSU  The sample consisted of 155 MSU students  The sample was not representative of the population  All responses were voluntary and remained anonymous  Inserted the data into Minitab  All data (other than the year in school) was categorical  Used cross-tabulation tables with counts and percentages to compare data

 49 females and 106 males  61 freshman, 46 sophomores, 32 juniors, 14 seniors, and 2 0ther  38 from North Dakota, 22 from neighboring states, 15 from the east, 6 from the Midwest, 11 from the south, 34 from the west, 21 from Canada, and 15 international (countries that are not the U.S. or Canada)  91 individuals from rural locations and 64 from urban locations  5 Arts Majors, 53 Business Majors, 8 Communication Disorders Majors, 21 Education Majors, 18 Health Science Majors, 16 Science Majors, 27 Social Science Majors, and 7 Undecided

 Used a Chi-Square Test of Independence  Null: Involvement in sports and major are independent  Alternative: Involvement in sports and major are dependent  α = 0.05  P = < α  Rejected null, accepted alternative  Involvement in sports and major are dependent  Hypothesis regarding sports was correct

 Used a Chi-Square Test of Independence  Null: Gender and major are independent  Alternative: Gender and major are dependent  α = 0.05  P < 0.01 < α  Reject null, accept alternative  Gender and major are dependent  Hypothesis regarding gender was incorrect

 Used a Chi-Square Test of Independence  Null: Hometown location and major are independent  Alternative: Hometown location and major are dependent  α = 0.05  P = > α  Fail-to-reject null  Hometown location and major are independent  Hypothesis regarding hometown location was wrong.

 Used a Chi-Square Test of Independence  Null: Plan to attend graduate school and major are independent  Alternative: Plan to attend graduate school and major are dependent  α = 0.05  P < 0.01 < α  Reject null, accept alternative  Plan to attend graduate school and major are dependent  Hypothesis regarding plan to attend graduate school was correct

 Factors that affect the major an individual chooses:  Gender  Plan to attend graduate school  Involvement in sports  Factors that do not affect the major an individual chooses:  Hometown location (city or rural)

 Several limitations:  Sample – convenience sample  Sample size  Survey – open-ended questions  Suggestions for next time:  Have no open-ended questions  An online survey  Consider other factors:  Occupation of parents  Age in college  Financial situation of the student  Religion

 Enrollment services  Graduate school  Recruiters