suppose a friend of yours is trying to get her son into a science based private school on the east coast, based on the selection process listed online each applicant has 40% chance of acceptance in any given year he or she applies and acceptance decisions are independent over subsequent applications, the application process is quite expensive so your friend has decided she will only submit an application 3 times, your friend has asked you to estimate the expected number of applications she will have to submit given the 40% chance of success and her limit of 3