CS&E 1111/1112 LAB 5: NESTED IF’S
LAB 5: IN-LAB ASSIGNMENT –TO BE COMPLETED DURING IN-LAB CLASS
The following assignment must be completed before the end of the lab session. If you have not finished
all of the tasks, be sure to save and submit what you have completed for partial credit. In-lab 5expands
your use of relational operators, Boolean logical constructs, IFs and Nested IFs to help create
spreadsheets that enable decision making.
PART I -FABER COLLEGE
Please read through all of the instructions– the lab will lead you through each of the specific criteria
and questions, after explaining the set-up and the overall goal.
Dean Wormer and the faculty at Faber College have thought long and hard about their admissions
criteria. They have decided to forget about activities, athletics, relatives who attended the university,
recommendations, and so on. Faber is going to try to upgrade their academic reputation by using
admission criteria based solely on academics. This will include standardized test scores and class rank.
A copy of the completed spreadsheet appears at the end of the lab.
Applicants must submit five numbers:

Math (SAT test score) – valid scores range from 200 to 800

Verbal (SAT test score) – valid scores range from 200 to 800

One Science SAT II score- valid scores range from 250 to 800

Number of students in graduating class – any positive number is valid

Rank in graduating class – valid from 1 to number of students in graduating class
The Admissions Committee has set the following criteria to determine whether a student will be
rejected, accepted or waitlisted. The criteria are applied in order. Thus, if a candidate is rejected, he
cannot be accepted even if he meets the “accept” criteria. The committee first determines if an
applicant will be rejected, then whether he will be accepted and finally if he is neither accepted nor
rejected he will be waitlisted. The criteria used are as follows:
An applicant is rejected if either of these criteria is true:


The student has submitted an invalid score or class rank.
Both SAT (Math & Verbal) test scores are below 500.
An applicant is accepted if all of these criteria are true:




The two SAT (Math & Verbal) scores average above 550
The SAT II Science score is above 550.
The applicant is in the top fifth of the graduating class.
The applicant has not been rejected
An applicant is waitlisted if he has neither been rejected nor accepted.
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Solving the Problem:
 Copy the Excel spreadsheet file faber.xlsx from Carmen to your personal directory on the Z: drive.
The data input section of the spreadsheet has been completed as well as the structure of the
adjacent output area. A copy of the completed spreadsheet can be found on the last page of this
lab. This should help you determine if you are on the right track. As always, you will be graded on
the formulas.
 It is your job to determine which students are rejected, accepted or waitlisted. – The instructions
that follow are one possible method of solving this problem. All of the formulas that you write will
correspond to one student’s data (Blutarski in row 4). The formulas must be written so that they
can be copied down the column.
To help make these decisions, we have broken them down into several sub-components as
represented by the different columns – invalid scores, top 20% etc.. Your job will be to write formulas
to combine the criteria needed for these decisions.
 Evaluating “reject” criteria – start with each of the criteria listed
1.
Write a formula in cell H4, which can be copied down the column to determine if the test scores
are invalid.

Math SAT scores are not accepted if they are below 200 – as students are not considered
eligible to apply. They are also not accepted over 800 as they are an invalid value.
 To test if the Math SAT score is below 200 use this expression C4<200
 To test if the Math SAT score is above 800 write the expression____________

Test that Verbal SAT scores are invalid
 Verbal SAT score is below 200 ______________________________________
 Verbal SAT score is above 800 ______________________________________

Test that SAT II Science test scores are invalid
 SAT II Science score is below 250 ____________________________________
 SAT II Science score is above 800 ____________________________________

Class rank is invalid - (hint: refer to the criteria that were previously specified to determine what
an invalid class rank is. Make sure to write your formula so that is can be copied down the
column.) __________________________________________________
 Combine this information in order to determine if you should reject the student. To do this you
need to determine if any of the above arguments are TRUE. “Any” usually means that if even
one is TRUE, the entire statement is TRUE. Given this information, what function should we use
to combine all these terms? Not sure? Go back to your pre-lab and look for a similar problem.
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2. Test to see if both the Verbal and Math SAT scores are below 500 based on the definition provided
in the problem description. Write a formula in cell I4 and copy it down the column. To test this
criteria use the same methodology used in step 1. First breakdown each component part into a
simple expression; then combine them using a Boolean operator function.
3. Test to see if the candidate is “accepted” based on the definition provided in the problem
description. Write a formula in cell N4 and copy it down the column. To test this criteria use the
same methodology used in step 1. First breakdown each component part into a simple expression
then combine them using a Boolean Operator Function.
 Test to see if the average of the SAT score are above 550. Write a formula in cell J4 and copy
it down the column.
 Test to see if the SAT II Science test has a score above 550. Write a formula in cell K4 and
copy it down the column.
 Test to see if the applicant is in the top 20% of his/her class. Write a formula in cell L4 and
copy it down the column.
4. Evaluating “Waitlist” - Write a formula in cell N4 to determine whether to “waitlist” this candidate.
A candidate is waitlisted if they have not been rejected and not been accepted.
 Note: There are several combinations of Boolean functions which can be successfully
combined to make this equation work.
5. Answer the following questions.
 The dean has asked you to report to him how the applicant pool compares with last year’s
applicant pool. To do this they have asked you to compare the average the SATII scores of
this year’s applicants and compare to last years, which was 610. If the average of the SATII
scores this year was higher, display “higher”, if the average of the SATII this year is the same
as last year, display “same”, if it was lower, display “lower”. Write your formula in cell B19
as described here:
 Use an IF function to solve this using the following logic diagram
higher
This yrs.
GPA
SATII
Average
>3.1
>610
TRUE
same
This yrs.
FALSE
TRUE
This yrs.
SATII
GPA
Average
Average= =
3.1
610
FALSE
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6.
The faculty is thinking of offering a scholarship to students with excellent SAT scores. If a student’s
Math and Verbal SAT scores (combined) is above 1300 they will be considered a scholarship
candidate. Write an Excel formula to determine if this student is a "scholarship candidate". If the
student is not a candidate display "no scholarship". Place your formula in column P (not shown) and
copy it down the column.
7. Use Conditional Formatting to format the following:
 Use Data Bars to highlight the SATII scores in column E.
 Specify a yellow background and red bold font type for all cells listing as “scholarship
candidate” in column P.
8. Save and Submit this file Faber.xlsx under Lab 5
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Completed Application Worksheet for Faber-College
SUBMIT YOUR FILES
Submit your lab files to the Lab 5 assignment for the pre-lab and in-lab assignments as follows:

Soccer.xlsx (prelab)

Movies.xlsx. (prelab)

Faber.xlsx (inlab)
LOGOFF OF YOUR COMPUTER
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