Modifiers are arguably GMAT's favorite topic.
When a sentence starts with a modifier, the modifier should modify the first "entity" that occurs after the comma. Typically this "entity" is a noun.
In addition to having a greater number of students than Lexington Community College, <Something>
Let's ask, ...What is In addition to having a greater number of students than Lexington Community College ...
(A) the students in Vaughn College are academically stronger than those in
Hmm,,,the first entity after the comma refers to "students". We should ask, what has .............In addition to having a greater number of students than Lexington Community College..........." . Obviously some other college. The way that the sentence is written, "Students" are being compared to to 'Lexington Community college. Apples need to be compared to apples
(B) Vaughn College is home to students who are academically stronger than those in
Makes sense. We will come back to this.
(C) the students in Vaughn College are academically stronger than they are in
Same mistake as (A)
(D) Vaughn College’s students are academically stronger than they are in
Same mistake as (A)
(E) Vaughn College has students stronger academically than
Makes sense. We will come back to this.
Ok, we are don to (C) and (E)..
Let's look at (E) first
Vaughn College has students stronger academically than.....
The words "stronger" and "academically", seem to be flipped around.
Any word that ends with "ly" is typically an adverb and Adverbs modify verbs, other adverbs and adjectives.
Adverbs answers the questions How?, When?, or Where?
But in the above sentence, academically just seems to be sitting there without modifying anything. Hence this answer option is incorrect.
We are down to (C) and this answer option rectifies the errors that we have identified in the other answer options.
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