Research Question and Hypothesis

Hello David and Brittany. Thank you for starting-off the discussion with such interesting ideas.

I agree with Brittany in saying that David's Research Question on Which factors determine the faculty in which a new post-secondary student attends? is an interesting one. It provides us with a clear subject pool for the survey - Year 12/Graduating students.

However, I hope you don't mind me saying David, that I have reservations about Hypotheses 1 - "Increases in a family's income is positively correlated with increased likelihood to attend the faculty of commerce" - being a little too narrow. "High Family Income" may not be a valid variable for the phenomena we're trying to measure. Some high-income families headed by parents in the corporate field or who run a business would be likely to encourage their children to attend the Faculty of Commerce But this disregards families headed by parents who are of equally high-paying but different professions such as fields in medicine, academia, law... the child of a high-income lawyer would likely be encouraged to enter the Faculty of Political Science as a prerequisite for law school OR since law schools do not specify which Bachelor Degree they prefer, the child is exposed to a larger range of options.

Perhaps it would be easier to generalize that "Children of Parents with Professional Degrees (in the traditional sense of the word "professional" meaning the professor, lawyer, doctor...)are More Likely to Enter into a Faculty that Allows them to Specialize in a Certain Profession" I'm not sure about the wording, perhaps you could give me some suggestions? If we follow from that Hypotheses we could perhaps ask: "1) To What Extend Do Your Parents Influence Decisions Regarding Your Academic Career?" and have a 5-scale number range to determine the Degree of Influence. We could then add a lead-on question that explores other factors in Parental Influence: "1a) Do Your Parents Entirely Fund/Partly Fund Your Education?" OR "1b)Do Your Parents Insist Upon a Chosen Career Path for You?"

To help us narrow down the scope of our Research Question, perhaps we could list out some potential Independent Variables that may influence our Dependent Variable/Faculty Choice and then deliberate about which variables are easier to valid, reliable and easy to measure:

- Parent's Career/Profession

- Parent's Level of Education/Degree of Knowledge about Post-Secondary Institutions

- Child's Highest Scoring Year12/AP Subject(likely the one they want to major in)

- Availability/Access to Guidance Councilor (more information means child is better informed about they're career paths/academic choices)

- Student's GPA upon Application (some Faculties require a higher average/specific prerequisites)

Just some thoughts, I look forward to hearing all your feedback!

Thank you,

Joei