Question

The dean of a school of business is forecasting total student enrollment for this year's summer session classes based on the following historical data: Year Enrollment Four years ago 2000 Three years ago 2200 Two years ago 2800 Last year 3000 What is this year's forecast using the least squares trend line for these data

Answer 1

I used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate R² which gives us the least squares trend. See attached image.

y = 360x + 1600

R² = 0,9529

next year's enrollment should be = (360 x 5) + 1600 = 3400