Question

The College Selection Process – Choosing Between Two Finalist Colleges for Your Teen

Question 1

You are presented below with the partially completed preference matrix for the two college finalists. Based on the information presented, complete the matrix. Although some information is missing, you everything you need to fully complete the computation.

	College A			College B
Criteria	Weight	Criteria Score	Weighted Score	Weight	Criteria Score	Weighted Score
Cost	0.35	80		0.35	65
Distance to home		50			70
Odds of a job after	0.35	70		0.35	60
Football team rank	0.10	20		0.10	80

Question 2

Nothing else being assumed, which of the colleges appears the best alternative and, referring to the computation, why is that true?

Question 3

Looking at the above example, what is a possible criticism of the computation?

Answer 1

			College B
College A
Criteria	Weight	Criteria Score	Weighted Score	Weight	Criteria Score	Weighted Score
Cost	0.35	80.00	28.00	0.35	65.00	22.75
Distance to home	0.20	50.00	10.00	0.20	70.00	14.00
Odds of a job after	0.35	70.00	24.50	0.35	60.00	21.00
Football team rank	0.10	20.00	2.00	0.10	80.00	8.00
		Total	64.50		Total	65.75

Sum of all criterias = 1

Weight of distance to home = 1 - 0.35 - 0.35 - 0.1 = 0.2

Weighted score = Sum of (Criteria * Respective weights)

Question 2 -> College 2 appears better with a higher weighted score.

Question3 -> The criteria chosen do not seem to evaluate the education quality which is the basic need why one goes to college. Other secondary factors such as distance to home and football team rank have a very high weight considering primary factors such as - Quality of education, Quality of campus, Alumni network etc. is not even considered. Further, such scoring can overlook the importance of criteria given the weight assigned to them. For example - Odds of finding job , another reason why you wish to pursue higher education are higher in college 1 however, the overall scoring favors college 2.