Please answer...??

A group of college student conduct a survey in an attempt to determine the typical annual salary of the sch. alumni. Would alumni with very low salary be likely to respond? how would this affect the result? len_0018@yahoo.com

Please answer...??
It depends upon whether or not the survey is anonymous and whether or not it is compulsory. How is the survey presented to the alumni?





If the survey is anonymous and there is no way to identify who owns each survey, I don't think it would be any more skewed than any other survey.





It is a known fact that the return rate on surveys and questionnaires is notoriously low anyway. On average the return rate for surveys sent out through the mail is about 20 - 40%, unless the survey recipients have a personal reason to return the survey. This return rate can be improved by sending a followup reminder and by including an incentive for a response, but if you do that the survey might not be considered anonymous.





I hope these thoughts are of some help.
Reply:take the addresses of the alumni and look at the census bureau statitstics for college grads in each area.
Reply:Alumni with low salaries would be embarrassed about their low salaries, and would not respond. The result would be higher than it should be.
Reply:Surveys in general tend to be very unreliable. Those with low salaries would indeed be less likely to respond, which would mean the "typical" salary reported would be higher than the actual average. In addition, many people may find themselves to busy to respond or may feel the survey is unimportant. Finally lots of people are likely to lie on a survey that requests personal information.
Reply:In my opinion this survey depends on whether or not a random sample was taken. If the random sample is set to represent the population you would have no problem because those who didn't respond would not affect the overall population mean.
Reply:If the survey is anonymous (which should be) there is no reason for alumnies with low salaries to not to respond. In fact it will be a good opportunity for them point out the differences between alumni's salaries and complain about it!
Reply:Depends if they are identified - you may also find that folks inflate salaries because they want to look good.





So lets say i really make 50k per year, but I tell you 65k per year.





Just another thought.