HW2

Dataset Background
The data used for this visualization is from the Equality of Opportunity Project. Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Emmanuel Saez, Nicholas Turner, and Danny Yagan conducted a study where they analyzed the role of colleges in intergenerational mobility in 2017. This dataset used for the parallel coordinate graphs below have information on colleges throughout the United States and this information includes statistics on parent and student income, mobility rate, and females’ and married individuals’ populations. This specific dataset can help us see correlations between which types of schools have students from wealthy or poor backgrounds and how well they do after graduation and visa versa. Dataset used can be found here.

How to Interpret the Data
The first step to understand and interpret the visualizations below is by looking at the legend and noticing how the three different colors represent a type of college: public, private for-profit, and private not-for-profit. Each colored line represents a different college in the United States. Furthermore, each vertical axis represents a different attribute such as female population, parent income rank, or mobility rate. Thick bands of lines formed in areas where there is a greater amount of data recorded, which helps see where there are overall trends.

What You Can Learn
The graph shows us where the generic trends are in some of the categories like the female population and parent mean income. It’s evident in the graph that public schools seem to have a trend where around 50% of their university population is female and parent mean income is around $50,000 to $125,000. Public universities have bigger student populations, so they’re female to male ratios might be more even since they are more well-known to both females and males. It’s also interesting how there seems to be higher percentages of individuals married in private not-for-profit universities than any other category. Additionally, private for-profit colleges have a trend of where they have students who have parents with low income and because they are for-profit universities, they may have more funds for wider range of scholarships available for low income students.

Homework 2 Visualizations