Editing Data Into Insights (Spring 2021)/Purdue WP Case (section)

== Counterfactual thinking ==

For example, it looks like interest in Purdue has not been growing as quickly as interest in some of the other schools in recent months. You are a big Purdue basketball fan, and want to make the argument that fielding a good basketball team is key to recruiting undergrads. You suspect that our recent drop in interest is because our basketball team hasn't been doing that well.

This is the strong version of that counterfactual claim: If our basketball team had performed better, we would have had more and better undergraduate applicants.

* What are some reasons that this claim might not be true?
* What kind of evidence would help you to test if this claim is true (or to show that it is true)?
* Is there other pageview data that you could use to help figure out if you are right?
** Here is [https://pageviews.toolforge.org/?project=en.wikipedia.org&platform=all-access&agent=user&redirects=0&start=2019-01&end=2020-12&pages=Indiana_University_Bloomington%7CPurdue_University%7CNorthwestern_University%7CUniversity_of_Michigan the original pageview report]. Run a few other reports to gather evidence.