Predicting Undergraduate Council Funding Decisions Using Linear Discriminant Analysis

The Pembroke Undergraduate Research and Creativity Center’s council assists the director in making funding decisions for the Undergraduate Assistant Scholarship (USA). A rubric was developed to guide the council’s decisions. After the council members have reviewed and rated the USA proposals using a five-point rubric, the proposals then are ranked based on the mean of the ratings. Finally, the council discusses the proposals and makes funding decisions. The Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) was used to compare the mean, median, mean after truncation, and coefficient of variation (CV) as independent variables; the dependent variable was a funded or unfunded proposal. The results showed that the mean was the best predictor for this model. Some psychological theories are discussed to explain the results.