vusal808 wrote:
For-profit colleges serve far fewer students than either public or private non-profit colleges. At the same time, relative to non-profit colleges, for-profit colleges draw a disproportionate share of federal and state financial aid, such as tuition grants and guaranteed loans, for their students. It must be, then, that for-profit colleges enroll a greater proportion of financially disadvantaged students than do non-profit colleges.
The conclusion above depends on which of the following assumptions?
A. Public non-profit colleges and private non-profit colleges enroll a similar proportion of financially disadvantaged students.
B. For-profit colleges do not engage in fraudulent practices in helping their students obtain unneeded federal and state financial aid.
C. The number of students receiving federal and state financial aid at for-profit colleges is greater than the number of students receiving federal and state financial aid at non-profit colleges.
D. For-profit colleges are of similar educational quality as non-profit colleges.
E. The majority of students at for-profit colleges do not default on repayment of their loans after they complete college.
Hi all! So I was stuck between B and C. Eventually picked C. Since, the conclusion "It must be, then, that for-profit colleges enroll a greater proportion of financially disadvantaged students than do non-profit colleges." cares about the number of the students, it must be true that the number of students who receives financial aid in for-profit colleges is greater than other colleges. Otherwise, the conclusion would not work out right? I know OA is B. But can someone please elaborate on why B is correct? I mean, when I negate answer B, I get that "ok, even if for-profit colleges involve in a fraudulent way of obtaining the funding, does that really break the conclusion? Say, even if these for-profit colleges obtain illegal funding for 2-3 students, there is a chance that there are still students who are not in a position to pay their tuition fees so that funding is obtained for them". And in conclusion, I eliminate B. So that's basically my thought process. If someone could help or correct me, I'd be more than grateful. Many thanks in advance.
According to the argument, for- profit colleges serve 'far fewer' students ; so let's say
total students in for- profit = 20
for profit financial aid students = 5
total students in non- profit = 100
non profit financial aid students = 10
So, 5/20 = 25% which is greater than 10/100 = 10%, so even if C is negated, the conclusion still holds.
According to B, if for profit engage in fraudulent practices , then the number of financial aid students in for profit would be much less than what they are showing, and thus the conclusion would not hold. You are making a mistake by considering that they are obtaining illegal funding for only 2-3 students but that's not the case. According to B, they 'do not engage' means they are not helping the students in general obtain funds illegally so if you negate the statement, they are helping the students in general to obtain the funds illegally, and not just a small minority.