An estimated 1.6 million students take on student loans to pay ever-rising tuiti
ID: 3241127 • Letter: A
Question
An estimated 1.6 million students take on student loans to pay ever-rising tuition and room and board (The New York Times, April 17, 2009). It is also known that the average cumulative debt of recent college graduates is about $21,600. Let the cumulative debt among recent college graduates be normally distributed with a standard deviation of $8,000. Approximately how many recent college graduates have accumulated a student loan of more than $30,000? Use Table 1. (Round "z-value" to 2 decimal places.)
Explanation / Answer
z = (x - )/, x = 30000, = 8000, = 21600
P(X > x) = P(X > 30000) = P(Z > (30000-21600)/8000) = P(Z > 1.05) = 1 - P(Z < 1.05) = 0.1469 = 0.15
No. college graduates who have accumulated a student loan of more than 30000 = 0.15*1,600,000
= 240,000 students
.