Research Reports from the Department of Operations

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

6-1-1974

Abstract

Most academic departments in universities are faced with the problem of selecting candidates for awarding limited financial aid. In many institutions, there are two levels of aid: (i) graduate assistantships that pay a larger amount and (ii) tuition fellowships which pay only tuition, and hence a lesser amount. The limitation on available aid makes the problem of selecting the right candidates a difficult and interesting one. Even when aid is given, the event that a student joins a department is only probabilistic, due to competition from other schools. However, it seems realistic to assume that the probability that a student joins a department increases with the amount of aid offered. Obviously, the decision to offer a student any aid also depends on the quality of the student. Therefore, we shall associate a value with each candidate which reflects his quality. This number could simply be a rank that is arrived at subjectively. It could also be arrived at by analyzing past data on a student (e.g., GPA, GRE, ATGSB or other data) and correlating them with the performance in the department. Since candidates will, in general, have different values, different probabilities of joining the department exist, which in turn depend on the amount of aid. Since the total amount of aid is limited, an objective selection procedure which produces an optimal solution is needed. This paper outlines such a method. This model, as shown later, can also be adapted to the problem of project selection and funding in research and development management. However, this paper describes the model in the context of awarding financial aid to students.

Keywords

Operations research, Student aid, Universities and colleges--Admission, Decision making--Mathematical models, Mathematical optimization, Research and development projects

Publication Title

Technical Memorandums from the Department of Operations, School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

Issue

Technical memorandum no. 336

Rights

This work is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded for personal or academic use

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