The faculty senate at a large university wanted to know what proportion of the students thought foreign language classes should be required for everyone. The statistics department offered to cooperate in conducting a survey, and a simple random sample of 500 students was selected from all the students enrolled in statistics classes. A survey form was sent by email to these 500 students.

In this case, the population of interest is:

(a) all the students at the university.
(b) all the students enrolled in a statistics class.
(c) the 500 students who got the email survey.
(d) the students who responded to the email survey.
(e) all the students who think that foreign language classes should be required for everyone.

Given that the faculty senate at a large university wanted to know what proportion of the students thought foreign language classes should be required for everyone.

Just the statistics department helped to collect data from a sample of 500 students.

Because of this we cannot say all stats students is the population. Similarly 500 students form the sample and not population. the students who responded to the email survey are the real sample out of 500.

So correct answer for the population of interest is

(e) all the students who think that foreign language classes should be required for everyone