A researcher wants to see if U.S. News & World Report rankings influence the number of applications received by colleges and universities. He obtains the unadjusted data shown in Table 1.17 on applications to one small liberal arts college. To take into account the nationwide growth of college applications, this researcher uses data from the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFE) showing that, during this period, college applications increased by an average of 4 percent per year. He consequently

adjusted the number of applications to this college by dividing each value by 1.04.
Identify his mistake and explain how you would calculate the adjusted values correctly.
Do not do the actual calculations; just explain how you would do them.

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Number of Applications Unadjusted Adjusted 1987 3,192 3,069.2 1988 2,945 2,831.7 1989 3,176 3,053.8 1990 2,869 2,758.7 1991 2,852 2,742.3 1992 2,883 2,772.1 1993 3,037 2,920.2 1994 3,293 3,166.3 1995 3,586 3,448.1