Narrowing It Down
A ranking to determine which university I should attend
THE CANDIDATES:
Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Victoria (UVic), University of Western Ontario (UWO), and University of Toronto (U of T).
MY CRITERIA
Parent Preference
My parent's preference is important to me because they are looking out for what is best for me, and will be helping with the cost of travel to and from where I end up going to school. These are ranked from 1 to 5, with 5 being their most preferred and 1 being least preferred.
Admission Average
The admission average is important because I want to be able to get in to the university that I want to go to, and also because I don't want it to be too low that it is not academically challenging enough. My ideal admission average is close to 85%, as this is an attainable average for me, and is not too low. To rank the universities out of 5 (with 5 being the closest to an 85% entrance average, and 1 being the furthest to an 85% entrance average) I will use this formula:
R=1-(85-x/85)*5 where R is the ranking, and X is the average of that university.
R=1-(85-x/85)*5 where R is the ranking, and X is the average of that university.
Tuition Cost
The cost of tuition is important to me because this is the cost I will be paying for myself using student loans and my own money, so I want it to be fairly low. I will rank the costs from 1-5, with 5 being least expensive, and 1 being most expensive.
Program
Criminology, which is the program I would like to study, is not the most common program, and some of the universities I would like to go to do not have a criminology program. My second choice of program would be a psychology program, which I could then specialize and move into criminal psychology. However, I would prefer to be studying criminology right away, so I am giving an extra point to the universities that do have criminology, and giving none to the universities that do not.
Location
The ideal location of my university would be in Vancouver, British Columbia, because of the friends and family I have there. Some of my chosen universities are closer to Vancouver than others, and they will be ranked from closest (5) to furthest (1) according to my preference.
RAW DATA MATRIX
RANKED DATA MATRIX
MATRIX MULTIPLICATION
In Conclusion
Simon Fraser University is the clear winner with a score of 325, with a close second of University of Toronto with a score of 313.8. Simon Fraser's admission average, low tuition cost, and the fact that it has a criminology program all contributed to its high ranking, as the weightings of those criteria are the highest out of 100. University of Victoria has the lowest score, probably due to its very low admission average and the fact that it does not have a criminology program. And even despite UBC being in the ideal location for me, and having a high parent preference, the weighting of those criteria didn't make much of a difference in the total rank for that university. This goes to show that regardless of a high score in one area, it really doesn't mean much if the weight of that area is low overall.
It seems like Simon Fraser is the perfect choice, with the ideal location, program, admission average, and parent preference, with a reasonable tuition cost as well.