Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution at its 1833 foundin

Question

Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution  at its 1833 founding for deciding to accept  both men and women as students.

(A) at its 1833 founding for deciding to accept

(B) for the decision at its 1833 founding to accept

(C) when it was founded in 1833 for its decision to accept

(D) in deciding at its founding in 1833 to accept

(E) by deciding at its founding in 1833 on the acceptance of

Source  :  Test Code 37, Q13

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/21/science/education-the-all-male-college-vanishing.html

Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution at its 1833 founding for deciding to accept both men and women as students.

(A) at its 1833 founding for deciding to accept

(B) for the decision at its 1833 founding to accept

(C) when it was founded in 1833 for its decision to accept

(D) in deciding at its founding in 1833 to accept

(E) by deciding at its founding in 1833 on the acceptance of

dwivedys · Accepted Answer

C has a modifier issue - Oberlin College was a renegade institution WHEN it was founded changes the intended meaning of the sentence. The college was renegade because it had decided to accept both women and men - so in a way this act of accepting men and women made it renegade - something that has been expressed quite eloquently in D - it was RENEGADE IN DECIDING --- the prepositional phrase IN DECIDING acts as an adverb modifying the adjective renegade.

daagh · Answer

Although the clause ‘ when it was founded’  denotes the timing of founding, by virtue of its intrusion between the institution being called renegade and the reason for the same, C tends to shift the focus of the renegading to founding rather than to the acceptance of both men and women. This is antithetical to the gist of the passage, which effuses a causal relationship between the acceptance of both sexes and its reputation as a renegade. This is established in D, by pushing the incidental ‘founding’ to the back burner

amitdgr · Answer

Nice explanation .. I'll add for remaining choices ..

A) "at its 1833 founding" is illogical ... It means that the institution had many foundings
B) Same as A
E) awkward.

alpha_plus_gamma · Answer

Note how C sounds:
when  it was founded  in 1833  for its decision to accept

That's why it is wrong. College was not founded for any decision.

thangvietname · Answer

this is beautiful questions.

in A
deciding in "for deciding" dose not refer to any noun/subject . for doing is used to modify a noun and refer to general action. doing in this case is called gerund. 
because deciding refer to no noun. meaning is unclear. A is out 
in B, for the decision refer to no noun. and similar to A, B has no clear meaning
in C, "for its decsion to accept" modifies "it was founded". no logic
in E, "Decide on acceptance" dose not mean "decide to accept" . "decide on acceptance " dose not mean the acceptance is decided.

aceGMAT21 · Answer

For this question I was down to 2 options B and D. Though I picked B, which is incorrect.

Understanding the meaning of renegade is critical for solving this question correctly.

RENEGADE : (meaning) a person who  has changed their feelings of support and duty   from one  political, religious, national, etc. group  to a new one . Here, the Oberlin college is called as a renegade institution because it has decided to accept both boys and girls now instead of either the boys or girls in its past decisions.

Options A and C  change the meaning by saying that the Oberlin college was a renegade institution at its 1833 founding. The implied meaning is different. We need an option that explains why the Oberlin college is renegade, which is done correctly by options B, D, and E. Option E can be eliminated as it is a bit more wordy than options B and D. It uses the noun form of accept -- acceptance which is avoided in the other 2 choices.

Between B and D, can someone explain why option B is wrong? As I am not able to eliminate between the 2.

GMATNinja  Can you please clear my doubt?

Also, my reasoning for picking option B is on terms with the reasoning for the correct option in this question,

The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival  
 (D) world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival

Thanks.
-Varun

sunny91 · Answer

D looks best to me. Options A and C imply that Oberlin College was a renegade institution AT ITS FOUNDING (A) and WHEN IT WAS FOUNDED (C). The intended meaning of the sentence is that an ACTION taken by Oberlin -- deciding...to accept both men and women -- CAUSED the school to be deemed a renegade institution. So, we can eliminate A and C. 
But I am having a hard time to eliminate option B. Also, in the below discussions, people have mentioned that A and B can be ruled our for the use of 'at its 1833 founding' which suggests there were more than one founding. I am unable to get this logic. Please explain in brief.

aceGMAT21 · Answer

Hi sunny91 , Let me try to help.

As rightly said by sayantan, "1833 founding" - this expression gives the impression that there had been several foundings. This is inherent by itself as we read "1833 founding" or we can say that the wording of the expression is such that this meaning is inherent, as if, there were many foundings of Oberlin College in Ohio. (for example, 1931 founding, 1765 founding etc.. and we are specifically talking about the 1833 founding). But this is not the intended meaning and even if we think more logically, how can the founding of a college done more than once? make sense, right? So, the meaning is NON SENSICAL. That's why option B is INCORRECT. Even option A repeats the same mistake. ANALOGY, (you can correlate the expression '1833 founding' with the expression '21st birthday') On his 21st birthday, Arjun got a brand new car from his father. So, here we are specifically referring to the 21st birthday, not any other of the birthdays (like 20th or 22nd). But that is actually not the case in the question at hand. Hope this clears your doubt? Let me know if you have any more questions. Thanks. -Varun

Skywalker18 · Answer

Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution  at its 1833 founding for deciding to accept  both men and women as students.

(A) at its 1833 founding for deciding to accept - "at its 1833 founding" illogically suggests that there could have been more than one time it was founded.

(B) for the decision at its 1833 founding to accept - "at its 1833 founding" illogically suggests that there could have been more than one time it was founded.

(C) when it was founded in 1833 for its decision to accept - Illogically suggests that "College was founded in 1833 for its decision"

(D) in deciding at its founding in 1833 to accept - Correct

(E) by deciding at its founding in 1833 on the acceptance of - "deciding on the acceptance of" is wordy.

Answer D

JeanieDong · Answer

Hey. It's cool, that you know the history of the college, which has it's own website now ->  https://www.oberlin.edu/ , the college, that exists nowadays but was built a long time ago.

emmayeli · Answer

i am still confused why B shift the focus. Can anyone help me??

AjiteshArun · Answer

This is the sentence that option B leads to:

Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution  for   the decision  at its  1833 founding  to accept both men and women as students.

1. The  for  makes the meaning a little too broad. We don't want to say that Oberlin was generally a "renegade institution". We want to say that it was a renegade institution in one  particular  sense. A (very rough) example:

In choosing not to join the army, he was a rebel. 
vs.
 He was a rebel for his decision not to join the army.

The second seems to imply that he was a rebel generally because of his decision, whereas the first limits the "rebel" bit to his choice.

2. The  the  is imprecise and doesn't clarify that it was Oberlin that took the decision.

... for  the decision  at its 1833 founding...

Who took this decision?

3.  founding in 1833  sounds slightly better than  1833 founding .

Of these, I'd use (2) to take the decision to remove B, as it's a safer, more straightforward call than (1) is. I'd avoid using (3) to take that decision.

dcummins · Answer

This might help others - i didn't even see this but (B) removes WHO performed the decision. Read it in this light and you'll see.

AlexGmat2017 · Answer

I thought about the place of pronoun 'its'.
That reduced my choice to D or E.

To chose between D and E we need to use logic of the sentence.
In D the action is completed but in progress in E.

Kanika3agg · Answer

Can anyone explain why option B is wrong?

GMATNinja · Answer

Addressed in detail by AjiteshArun here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/oberlin-coll ... l#p2245391. Let us know if that doesn't resolve the problem.

Kanika3agg · Answer

Thank you for replying!
 
I am sorry but I still cant understand the reasoning. Firstly, for is broad because it clearly doesn't pinpoint to the decision? If that is the case then I would not be sure of many answers in GMAT.

Secondly, Even if we dont know what the subject is, cant that be true?
Example - The Olympic Games helped to keep peace among the pugnacious states of the Greek world, for a sacred truce was proclaimed during the month of the festival - OG question. We don't know what the subject is here?

GMATNinja · Answer

In the "Olympic Games" example, "for" is used as a conjunction essentially meaning "because": "The Olympic Games helped to keep peace,  because  a sacred truce was proclaimed..."

A similar usage of "for" would be, "Oberlin College was a renegade institution, for (because) its decision to accept both men and women at its 1833 founding opposed the social norms of that time."

The broader issue with choice (B) is that the use of "for" makes the meaning unclear. Was Oberlin a renegade institution IN ORDER TO REACH the decision at its 1833 founding? In other words, did Oberlin act like a rebel for a while SO THAT it could make that decision?

"For" can also mean "because of", but that usage would only make sense if we add another word, such as "considered": "Oberlin College was  considered  a renegade institution for (because of) its decision...". Why was Oberlin considered a renegade institution? Because of its decision.

If we simply say that, "Oberlin College WAS a renegade institution BECAUSE OF its decision," we imply that the decision  caused  Oberlin to become a renegade institution, and that's not quite right. As suggested by  AjiteshArun , we aren't necessarily trying to say that Oberlin was a renegade institution IN GENERAL. Instead, we are simply trying to say that deciding to accept both men and women was, by itself, a renegade act. Outside of that decision, Oberlin may have been the most conservative/traditional institution in the country.

This is admittedly a subtle point, but the correct meaning is more clear in choice (D).

I hope this helps a bit!

Rahulbasu007 · Answer

I got confused between B and D initially.

Option B, "for the decision at its 1833 founding to accept", suggests that the decision to accept both men and women was made at the time of the founding. However, the phrase "1833 founding" implies that there were 'multiple foundings', which is not logical. And it also sounds unidiomatic.

Option D, "in deciding at its founding in 1833 to accept", correctly links the decision to accept both men and women with the act of being a renegade institution. The phrase "in deciding" modifies "renegade institution", clarifying that it was the decision to accept both men and women that made Oberlin College a renegade institution. This option also avoids the awkward phrasing of "1833 founding".

Is my understanding correct?

Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution at its 1833 foundin

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

Oberlin College in Ohio was a renegade institution at its 1833 foundin

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