Written by Connor Moore: Throughout the past two years, it’s become a common refrain that colleges are getting harder to get into. In order to justify this claim, people usually point to declining college admissions rates. It’s a simple, clear line of argument: if the admissions rate goes down, less people who apply are getting…
Category: Data Detectives Series
Is the Fleming Administrative Building Riot-Proof?
Written by Connor Zahler: Recently, we published an article discussing the demolition of the beloved/loathed Fleming Administrative Building. Even though most students have never set foot in the building, many are familiar with it through another vector: rumors. Specifically, it’s an old (well, from the 60s) campus legend that the Fleming was built to be…
Insights into College Admissions Part 2
Written by Connor Moore: In my last article, we established that college admissions had been falling for a long time (at least a decade), but the most recent year was especially bad. Why is that? Have colleges found the most recent graduating class lacking? Is there some kind of divine interference? Luckily, we don’t have…
DATA DETECTIVES: ARE YOU LESS CREATIVE THAN CHATGPT?
By Connor Zahler EVERYONE’S SO CREATIVE Over the past year, it’s been impossible to go a single day without a breathless headline about the promise (or doom) of AI technologies. One of the hobby horses in this cottage industry is a focus on jobs. AI will destroy your job. AI is going to make your…
SPORTS CONTRACTS: A QUANTITATIVE NIGHTMARE
SMASHING RECORDS If you follow football, you may have recently heard that Los Angeles Chargers quarterback (and owner of the second best head of hair in the NFL) Justin Herbert signed a blockbuster deal to become the highest paid quarterback in NFL history (in terms of average annual value, AAV). If that sounds familiar, it…
DATA DETECTIVES: ARE WOLVERINES LESS EMPATHETIC?
Up to this point, Data Detectives has focused on claims which lack quantitative backing due to simple errors in calculation. These are the most common types of errors you’ll see: people simply saying things without the requisite backing or people making some sort of statistical mistake that spirals. Today, however, we’ll be looking at a…
Truth is Stranger than Fiction
Written by Connor Zahler: Of all the phenomena that social scientists have an interest in, conspiracy theories may appear to have the least association with anything quantitative. Everyone knows the stereotypical hallmarks: tinfoil hats, irrational suspicion, chains of association that defy logic, and general unlikeliness. What few know, though, is that quantitative research into conspiracy…
STEPPING OUT OF RANK FOR A DATA-DRIVEN CAUSE: U-M LAW AND LAW SCHOOL RANKINGS
Written by Connor Zahler INTRODUCTION It’s not a stretch to assume that most University of Michigan students have heard of, or even consulted, U.S. News and World Report. Since 1983, they’ve put out a ranking of colleges and universities across the United States. Michigan, of course, often ranks highly. They don’t stop at undergraduate programs,…
What Percentage of Marriages End in Divorce?
Written by Connor Zahler: One of the most ubiquitous claims in all of society is that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. It’s been brought up in fights about the course of society, lampshaded by romantic comedies, played straight by romantic tragedies, and is generally omnipresent. As with all common claims, it usually goes…
Consequences of Voight and the Colonial Witch Hunts
Written by Connor Zahler: In a previous post, Connor talked about a massive overestimation of the human toll during the European witch hunts. It’s easy to dismiss this, and other gross misuses of quantitative methods, as simply a funny anecdote or a one-off mistake. Unfortunately, things like this don’t just fade away with no impact.…