She was less successful after she had emigrated to New York compared t

Hello Everyone!

Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, and narrow it down to the correct choice quickly! To start, here is the original question with any major differences between the options highlighted in orange:

She was less successful after she had emigrated to New York compared to her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.

(A) She was less successful after she had emigrated to New York compared to
(B) Being less successful after she had emigrated to New York as compared to
(C) Less successful after she emigrated to New York than she had been in
(D) Although she was less successful after emigrating to New York when compared to
(E) She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in

After taking a quick glance over the options, here are a few things we can focus on to narrow down our choices:

1. She was / Being / Although / She had been (Structure & Conjunctions)
2. had emigrated / emigrated / emigrating (Verb Tense)
3. compared to / as compared to / than she had been in / when compared to / than in (Comparisons & Idioms)

Let's start with #1 on our list, because it will eliminate a couple options pretty quickly. The phrase that's underlined is meant to act as a modifier for the subject, photographer Lotte Jacobi. This means that the phrase needs to look like a modifier, and not a complete sentence. Let's see how each option handles this when you add the remainder of the sentence to it:

(A) She was less successful after she had emigrated to New York compared to her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.
(B) Being less successful after she had emigrated to New York as compared to her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.
(C) Less successful after she emigrated to New York than she had been in her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.
(D) Although she was less successful after emigrating to New York when compared to her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.
(E) She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.

We can eliminate options A & E because the underlined phrases are complete sentences, and not modifiers like we need them to be! Both of these sentences are actually great examples of comma splices - two complete sentences separated only by a comma, which isn't good enough to separate them (they need a conjunction or semicolon instead).

Next, let's tackle #3 on our list: comparisons. Whenever we see comparative words, such as "less," "fewer," "more," etc., we know that we need to check for any problems with redundant or non-parallel comparisons! Let's take a closer look at each option and make sure the comparisons are handled properly:

(B) Being less successful after she had emigrated to New York as compared to

This is INCORRECT because it's redundant. There is no need to say "as compared to" when we already have the word "less" indicating that we're comparing two things.

(C) Less successful after she emigrated to New York than she had been in

This is CORRECT! It makes more sense to say "X is less than Y" because it's clear and concise. It's also clear that the sentence compares Jacobi's success in New York to her success in Germany.

(D) Although she was less successful after emigrating to New York when compared to

This is also INCORRECT because it's redundant. It also creates a non-parallel comparison! This phrase actually compares her success in New York to the country of Germany, which isn't parallel.


There you have it - option C is the correct choice! It's the only one that is clear, concise, and parallel!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.