Let's say I was tasked with collecting and evaluating data about the selling price of homes in my community. Those interested in my findings likely are using the information to make financial decisions related to buying or selling a house. Now, let's say that one of the homes sold was not an arm's length sale -- a parent sold the house to a child for what appeared to be a very low price compared to other sales. Should this sale be included? Unlike the other sellers, maximizing the sale price was not a primary motivation. Including this data point would artificially lower average sale prices even though this individual seller's likely does not reflect his best financial option.

There are some graduates whose near-term primary motivation is not money. This is ok, but it is not correct to include those students in averages which will be used for the evaluation of the financial benefit of receiving an education from Stanford.