Decision model for a place to live at PSU: The case of international graduate students

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the use of decision models for the selection of a place to live for a new student who just came to Portland State University (PSU.) A hierarchical decision model (HDM) was selected as the tool and a model was constructed to meet the objective of selecting the best place to live. Cost, convenience, and safety were identified as the three goals in support of the objective. The criteria and sub-criteria were listed with respect to each goal. The alternatives were chosen for both on-campus and off-campus housings. The experts were selected from a group of international graduate students to quantify judgments based on the HDM model. Finally, utility values were used to compare the characteristics of the alternatives. The alternative with the highest score was identified as the best alternative.