The Professor Proposes free essay sample

There were so many different rings of different variations that he quickly became overwhelmed. The professor realized that there would need to be research and more effort put into the process of buying his girlfriend an engagement ring. In order for the professor to get the best ring for the best price he needed to know more about the different types of rings. There were terms that the professor has never considered before like â€Å"the four C’s: Color, cut, carat and clarity. † Other things he realized he needed to consider was who the ring was certified by along with the type of polish and symmetry. Taking all the characteristics and factors into consideration the professor went off and did his research. The professor felt more knowledgeable about shopping for not just the engagement ring but the perfect diamond. After learning about the different factors when it came to buying an engagement ring the professor took in all the information and got a quote for a ring that he felt he connected with. We will write a custom essay sample on The Professor Proposes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page His next concern that arose was what he should be paying for that ring in order for him to not overpay. He concluded his research by doing additional research on the diamond wholesalers. Problem As a typical man the professor assumes that the first step in his engagement was going to be the easiest. Little did he know how much went into purchasing the best engagement stone for his girlfriend. He quickly reazized how much research he needed to do after going into the first jewelry store. The issue was him understanding the different charasterics such as: * Carat weight * Cut * Color * Clarity * Polish * Symmetry * Certification Next, the other issue was whether a quote the professor was given was a good deal or not. Research When making a big purpose like buying expensive diamonds it is very wise to make sure to see a certification from labs like Gemological Institute of America (GIA), American Gemological Society (AGS), European Gemological Laboratories (EGL) and International Gemological Institute (IGI). There are other small labs that can be found most often ran and located in jewelry stores. When purchasing a diamond it is more reliable to see a certification from a larger laboratory to ensure that you are not getting ripped off. It is important to get the most for your money. Even more importantly you want to be certain that you are purchasing what you think you are, since there are so many easy ways that jewelers can fool you. In order to make a wise decision on purchasing a ring you should find an honest jeweler. When you have a jeweler that you can trust they will be willing to help you find what you are looking for and be honest about it. It is also smart to print sample certificates for when you are shopping for diamonds to use a reference to see if the certificate a jeweler gives you is real. The main lab reports that you should look at and consider when buying a diamond is from GIA, AGS, EGL, and IGI. They are the most reputable, dependable and knowledgeable labs that you should go by. It is important to be aware that there are independent jewelers looking to rip you off when buying a diamond. Diamonds are not cheap and you don’t want to purchase one that you are not certain is what the jeweler says it is. If a diamond does not come with a lab certificate it is not worth spending the money on for the risk that it is not what you are being promised it is. Small diamond laboratories exist for the purpose of making the store’s inventory look more valuable that what it really is. The small labs are most often owned by the local jewelry store. They are not very knowledgeable and accurate like the GIA lab. It is not very smart to go by these small labs they are ran to make the jewelry store pieces look more profitable than they really are. The Professor Proposes: Dummy Variable for all Alphabetic data In order to be able to use the software StatTools to help calculate the data for the professor’s rings it was important to change any alphabetical data to numerical data. The categories that I created dummy variables for were color, cut and clarity. I kept my numbers simple so that I wouldn’t end up confused later on. The carat and price columns already came in numbers so I left those categories alone. It took a while to change each individual cell from alphabetical to numerical. It was worth the effort since that way the software could calculate the information for me and display it in a manner that was easy to analyze. Figure 1: Dummy Variables Dividing the Database and Suggesting Better Stone Options Next I divided the database into 3 different categories. The first category consisted of the original data. The second and third categories were the less and more expensive ring options. I used $2,000 as the break off number since the professor said earlier on in this process that he was planning on spending $2,000-$4,000 on a ring for his girlfriend. I took every ring option from stone 207 which cost $1,988 and less and put that into my less expensive category. Following the less expensive category I created the more expensive category. This category started at $2,031 and went up since the professor said he would spend between $2,000-$4,000. This category consisted of stone #’s 208-440. The ring that the professor was quoted on was comparable to stones 394 and 395. The quoted ring was only seems like a better option since it had better clarity. The clarity of the quoted ring was a level 8 which was better than the level 10 clarity that stones 394 and 395 had. Now comparing the carats of the stones option 394 was 1. 01 carats, stone 395 was 1 carat, while the quoted ring was 0. 9 carats. Stone option 395 had an excellent cut while stone 394 had a good cut. The quoted ring had a very good cut. In this case I would not go with the quoted ring. I would go with stone option 395 since it had a better and excellent cut and the carat weighed 0. 1 more than the quoted stone. For the price the bigger carat is worth looking at with a better cut. Analyzing the less expensive rings went with stone option #206. The carat weight was very fair for the price. I keep the carat size in consideration while realizing that this stone’s color was in the J-K category meaning that it was faint yellow. If the stone was in any category higher than a 3 meaning it w ould be more yellow I would not have considered it. With the clarity being a 10 (I1) it was still fair for the price of $1,985. This stone had a good cut along with very good polish and good symmetry. I chose this ring for the professors less expensive option because it had a decent carat weight. The other factors such as colour, clarity, and cut were all decent for the price and the carat weight made up for them. For the more expensive ring options I kept in mind that I thought it would be a better option to get a ring with more focus on carat weight. The option I chose was stone #427 which had 1. 23 carats. This ring I would say was towards the more expensive side but not as expensive if I chose an option that had less carat weight and better characteristics in the colour, clarity and cut categories. The option I chose for the price of $3,137 was important because it was certified by the GIA lab. This stone had a faint yellow color which is not too bad when considering the carat size. Then it had a pretty decent clarity level of SI2 meaning that it was slighting included and it had very few inclusions at 10x. This stone has an excellent cut in comparison to some of the other stones around $3,137. The polish was excellent and the symmetry was good. All around I would go with the more expensive option than the less expensive. One reason being the professor stated that he was estimating to spend between $2,000 and $4,000. The professor can afford this option and if definitely getting a better option considering all of the characteristics. Figure 2: Less and More Expensive Best Options The Quoted Ring The quoted ring from exhibit 2 I would say was a little far from fair but stone option #427 was a better deal. The more expensive ring that I chose had the same clarity, same colour, a slightly better cut with a bigger carat. The price of the quoted ring was $37 less than the option I chose. For what the professor could get for $37 more was totally worth it. The carat most importantly was a decent size bigger. They both had the same certification so the better deal was stone option #427. For just a little bit of more money the professor would be getting a ring with more carat weight along with a better cut. The carat from the quoted stone was 0. 9 and the suggested ring I chose was 1. 23 which is well worth the cost of $3,137 Multiple Regression There is a lot of variation since the r-squared number is closer to 1. The r-squared value is . 9210. We have accounted for a lot since the r-squared number is so high. We were looking at a lot of information that cause this value to be so high such as; colour, clarity, cut, and carat weight. Our p-value is less than our critical value . 05 which then makes our f-ratio significant. Our p-vale for constant is less than the critical value . 05 so that makes our t-value significant. Figure 3: Multiple Regression: All options Figure 4: Multiple Regression: Less Expensive Figure 5: Multiple Regression: More Expensive Figure 6: Scatterplot with Linear Trend line: Less expensive Stone (Colour) Figure 7: Scatterplot with Linear Trend line: Less expensive Stone (Cut) Figure 8: Scatterplot with Linear Trend line: Less expensive Stone (Cut) Figure 9: Scatterplot with Linear Trend line: More expensive Stone (Colour) Figure 10: Scatterplot with Linear Trend line: More expensive Stone (Clarity) Figure 11: Scatterplot with Linear Trend line: More expensive Stone (Cut) Conclusion and Recommendations In conclusion I would say that the stone that the professor was quoted on would not have been the best option. The best advice in this case would be to figure out what characteristics would be most important the professor and what he would think his girlfriend would like the best. The price of a stone reflects many different characteristics. The most important characteristics would be the cut, clarity and carat weight. Once the professor figures that out he can chose which engagement stone would be worth the money he is willing to pay for his girlfriend. Citations Diamonds FAQ: How to Read a GIA Certificate. (n. d. ). Diamonds: We Test and Rate Jewelers. Retrieved May 4, 2013, from http://www. diamondhelpers. com/fivesteps/4-diamonds-FAQ. shtml Michael Leff, under supervision of Greg Zarik (2009) Richard Ivey School of Business: The University of Western Ontario The Professor Proposes. Ivey Publishing