Section 2.1 Objectives
By the end of this section, an engaged learner will be able to:
- understand the impact of student demographics, type of institution, and time on student loan debt.
-
perform exploratory data analysis on a numerical variable (college tuition, student loan debt) as a function of a numerical (year) or categorical (institution type, student demographics) variable.
- create line charts of student loan data over time.
- create scatterplots of student loan debt versus college graduation rates.
- create bar charts of the average student loan debt owed by various demographic groups.
- compute summary statistics to describe each of the above.
- use linear regression and correlation to judge trends in numerical data on tuition and student loan debt as a function of time and predict future outcomes.
- use a chi-squared test for independence to analyze the impact of student demographics (race, gender, and others) on student loan debt load.
- understand how data analysis can contribute to understanding the impact of student loan debt and government policy on student loans.
