To determine the proportion of students at a university who favor the construction of a parking garage, a student senate member surveys students as they leave the student union. This type of sample is a:
A) convenience sample.
B) simple random sample.
C) multistage random sample.
D) voluntary response sample.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This is a convenience sample because the sample is drawn from a group of people who happen to be available in a convenient location (leaving the student union). This type of sample may not be representative of the entire population and may be biased towards certain groups of students who visit the student union more often. A simple random sample would have randomly selected students from the entire population, while a multistage random sample would involve several stages of random sampling, and a voluntary response sample would be one in which individuals choose to participate, potentially introducing bias.

To Determine the Proportion of Students at a University Who