In 1990, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each ye

Question

In 1990, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each year averaged 1,250 students per university, while the total number of Ph.D. students enrolled averaged 7,500 students per university. By 2000, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each year had fallen to an average of 900 students per university, while the total number of Ph.D. students enrolled averaged 8,100 students per university.

Which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by the statements above?

A. The total number of students enrolled in Ph.D. programs increased from 1990 to 2000.

B. The average length of time a student remained enrolled in a Ph.D. program increased between 1990 and 2000.

C. The percentage of applicants accepted by Ph.D. programs declined from 1990 to 2000.

D. The number of universities remained constant from 1990 to 2000.

E. The demand for Ph.D. degrees declined from 1990 to 2000.

CrackverbalGMAT · Accepted Answer

The right answer here should be  B . Since this is an inference based CR question, the main thing we are looking to do is to select a conclusion that MUST be true. The best way to do this is to eliminate all answers that can be false, since the correct answer CANNOT be false.

A  - We only know the number of PhDs per university. It is very possible that the number of unis increased OR decreased. Hence, we cannot make definitive reliable claims about the total number of PhDs.  OUT

B  - The number enrolled per university per year has dropped, but the total number per university has increased. This is only possible if fewer people complete their PhDs than the number of new admissions. If people are not completing their PhDs at the same rate, it MUST be the case that on average, students are taking longer than they did before.  CORRECT

C  - We don't even know about all the applicants, only the ones who were admitted. If fewer candidates were admitted in total, it may be tempting to think a lower percentage were admitted. But it could very much be the case that fewer candidates applied to begin with.  OUT

D  - We don't know anything about this at all, since all data is on a per university basis.  OUT

E  - Demand refers to number of applicants, and as we addressed in C, we don't know what happened to that number.  OUT

- Matoo

Deepakjhamb · Answer

B. The average length of time a student remained enrolled in a Ph.D. program increased between 1990 and 2000

In B statement the average length of time student remained enrolled is compared for between 1990 and 2000 and what else . There is no comparison marker here . So this question is ambiguous . You can't compare with normally someone completes in specified time

iamjatinagrawal · Answer

It is a bit difficult to get such answers and I used elimination to get to the answer for this question. As per the statements, we are not known a few things:

Total Number of Universities, Demand of the Ph.D. Program.

Hence,

A)  Cannot tell about total number of students increasing or decreasing because we don't anything about the total number of unversities.

C)  We cannot tell about the percentage of students because for that we would need to know the total number of students which we cannot calculate as explained above.

D)  Again, as per the statements in the argument, we cannot tell anything about the number of universities.

E)  Nothing is given about the demand in the argument.

Based on the explanations above, we should eliminate those answer choices and mark  Option   (B)  and move on to the next questions.

guddo · Answer

In 1990, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each year averaged 1,250 students per university, while the total number of Ph.D. students enrolled averaged 7,500 students per university. By 2000, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each year had fallen to an average of 900 students per university, while the total number of Ph.D. students enrolled averaged 8,100 students per university. 
 
Which of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by the statements above?

The key idea is this:

If a university admits fewer new Ph.D. students each year but has more total Ph.D. students enrolled overall, that strongly suggests students are staying enrolled for a longer time.

In 1990:
7500 / 1250 = 6

In 2000:
 8100 / 900 = 9

So the numbers suggest that the average time students remained in the program increased.

(A) The total number of students enrolled in Ph.D. programs increased from 1990 to 2000.

Not necessarily. The figures are averages per university, not totals across all universities.

(B) The average length of time a student remained enrolled in a Ph.D. program increased between 1990 and 2000.

This is the best answer. Fewer new students were entering each year, but more students were enrolled at any given time, which strongly suggests a longer average stay.

(C) The percentage of applicants accepted by Ph.D. programs declined from 1990 to 2000.

We are given no information about the number of applicants.

(D) The number of universities remained constant from 1990 to 2000.

No information is given about how many universities there were.

(E) The demand for Ph.D. degrees declined from 1990 to 2000.

Again, no information about applications or demand.

Answer: (B)

KarishmaB · Answer

Beg of 90s 
Avg admissions - 1250
Avg Enrolled students - 7500

End of 90s
Avg admissions - 900
Avg Enrolled students - 8100

Even though admissions are reducing, number of enrolled students is higher. So outgoing might have slowed down. 
Option (B) is most strongly supported though it needn't be true. There are other ways in which this can be explained e.g. some universities are closing down so their students are shifting to the remaining universities. That could explain the increase in the number of enrolled students, but the logic requires assumptions. So option (B) is best supported.

A. The total number of students enrolled in Ph.D. programs increased from 1990 to 2000.

Total number = Average * No of universities

If number of universities has gone down then total may have gone down. Cannot infer.

C. The percentage of applicants accepted by Ph.D. programs declined from 1990 to 2000.

We only know that new admissions have reduced. Is it because fewer people are applying or fewer are getting accepted - we don't know.

D. The number of universities remained constant from 1990 to 2000.

Cannot infer. No data.

E. The demand for Ph.D. degrees declined from 1990 to 2000.

We only know that new admissions have reduced. Is it because fewer people are applying or fewer are getting accepted - we don't know.

Answer (B)

ameya.satyawadi · Answer

From enrollment I thought how many students have enrolled for admissions during the year, how can one avoid understanding the passage incorrectly when the passage is too ambiguous

AbhishekP220108 · Answer

Hi  ameya.satyawadi  let me try to help. Well understanding the argument is the first and mandatory requirement. Even if the argument looks complicated, try to understand it completely in CR. What I do is I read the sentences by breaking them, not a single sentence as a whole, and then I visualize what it is mainly pointing to me. Yes, there will be time when you don't understand even a single word, but that will happen mostly in timed environments and very difficult arguments, so when you are practicing, try to understand by breaking down the sentences in pieces, which will help you in developing the understanding. And as the practice progresses, the understanding level will be developed too.

Now talking about this passage particularly, yes, it is definitely a hard one, so spend some time with this and check what you comprehended incorrectly. Some good explanations are given above; do refer them.

Hope this helps

In 1990, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each ye

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

In 1990, the number of new students admitted to Ph.D. programs each ye

Prep Toolkit

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