Years to Earn Bachelor’s Degree: Listed below are the lengths of time ( in years) it took for a random sample of college students to earn bachelor’s degrees ( based on data from the U. S. National Center for Education Statistics). Based on these results, does it appear that it is common to earn a bachelor’s degree in four years?

4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 8 9 9 13 13 15

How do you define "common?"

From the sample, with only 6 of 20 earning the degree in 4 years, it does not seem "common."

To determine whether it is common to earn a bachelor's degree in four years based on the given data, we can analyze the central tendency or the average length of time it took for the random sample of college students to earn their degrees.

To calculate the average, we sum up all the values and divide it by the total number of values:

4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 8 + 9 + 9 + 13 + 13 + 15 = 145

There are 20 values in the sample, so we divide the sum by 20:

145 / 20 = 7.25

The average length of time in years for the sample to earn a bachelor's degree is 7.25.

Since the average time is greater than four years, it suggests that it is not common to earn a bachelor's degree in four years based on this particular sample of college students. However, it is important to note that this conclusion is based solely on the provided data, and further analysis with a larger sample size would be needed to draw definitive conclusions for the general population.