Chapter B.5, Problem 15AYU

Elapsed Time to Earn a Bachelor’s Degree Clifford Adelman, a researcher with the Department of Education, followed a cohort of students who graduated from high school in 1992, monitoring the progress the students made toward completing a bachelor’s degree. One aspect of his research was to compare students who first attended a community college to those who immediately attended and remained at a four-year institution. The sample standard deviation time to complete a bachelor’s degree of the 268 students who transferred to a four-year school after attending community college was 1.162. The sample standard deviation time to complete a bachelor’s degree of the 1145 students who immediately attended and remained at a four-year institution was 1.015. Assuming the time to earn a bachelor’s degree is normally distributed, does the evidence suggest the standard deviation time to earn a bachelor’s degree is different between the two groups? Use the α = 0.05 level of significance.