The cost of a semester s tuition at a certain university is

Question

The cost of a semester’s tuition at a certain university
is based on the number of courses in which a student
enrolls that semester. Although the cost per course at
that university has not risen in four years, many of its
students who could afford the tuition when they first
enrolled now claim they can no longer afford it.

Each of the following, if true, helps to resolve the
apparent discrepancy above EXCEPT:

(A) Faculty salaries at the university have risen
slightly over the past four years.
(B) The number of courses per semester for which
full-time students are required to enroll is
higher this year than any time in the past.
(C) The cost of living in the vicinity of the
university has risen over the last two years.
(D) The university awards new students a large
number of scholarships that are renewed each
year for the students who maintain high grade
averages.
(E) The university has turned many of its part-time
office jobs, for which students had generally
been hired, into full-time, nonstudent positions.

vjsharma25 · Answer

Are you ignoring the "EXCEPT" in question?

vjsharma25 · Answer

I also opted D first but the answer is A.I am not totally convinced with the answer though.

gmat1220 · Answer

Is the OE going after this word ??

(A) Faculty salaries at the university have risen
 slightly   over the past four years.

vivesomnium · Answer

(B) The number of courses per semester for which
full-time students are required to enroll is
higher this year than any time in the past.: Direct correlation- More number of courses would mean that even with same fees per course, total money required to be spent on tuition will go up- hence the inaffordability
(C) The cost of living in the vicinity of the
university has risen over the last two years.: If students are spending more on living costs, they might be getting left with less money to spend on tuition- hence the inaffodability.
(D) The university awards new students a large
number of scholarships that are renewed each
year for the students who maintain high grade
averages.: University awards new students this scholarships- not sure if the students who could afford tuition earlier and cant afford it now are new or not
(E) The university has turned many of its part-time
office jobs, for which students had generally
been hired, into full-time, nonstudent positions.: Implies that the student who might be earning extra money helping them afford tuition no longer have those jobs or the extra money- hence the inaffordability.

Faculty salaries at the university have risen
slightly over the past four years.: So what? No where any hint is given, or an assumption can be made as to faculty salaries are to be paid by students. in fact, tuition mostly is supposed to cover faculty salaries. Since this cant be an expenditure attributed to the students, this cant resolve the discrepancy of inaffordability.

vjsharma25 · Answer

Hmmm....I think I understand this option how it is resolving the discrepancy/paradox. When students enrolls,most of them are given scholarship,which offsets the tuition cost. But students have to maintain the high grades to renew the scholarship,but they are not able to do it now.Thats why initially they were able to pay the tuition feess but not now. Convinced? I wanted to ask you about this but while writing I got this reasoning

chere4g · Answer

vjsharma25 - 
I think you are making a big assumption that the students are not able to maintain high grades. Here's my thinking -

1. When NEW students enrol, scholarship provided...say Year 1 scholarship provided
2. Year 2, the same students who have completed their first year are no longer new and are not provided scholarships. They now think that the course is expensive.

Try as I might, I'm not able to buy vivesomnium's argument. "Faculty salaries at the university have risen
slightly over the past four years.: So what? No where any hint is given, or an assumption can be made as to faculty salaries are to be paid by students. in fact,  tuition mostly is supposed to cover faculty salaries . Since this cant be an expenditure attributed to the students, this cant resolve the discrepancy of inaffordability."
Well, if faculty salaries have risen and if the tution is supposed to cover faculty salary, it is but obvious that the tution has also increased with the result that students bear the brunt of increasing faculty salaries

Thoughts?

gmat1220 · Answer

Agree this cr is elusive. A lot of circular reasoning and some extra (terrestrial) assumptions. :-)

) Posted from my mobile device

onedayill · Answer

Here is my 2 cents.

The paradox is: 
Even though the cost of courses has been constant, many students claim they can no longer afford tuition.

(A) Faculty salaries at the university have risen slightly over the past four years.

Because the passage tells us that the costs of courses have not risen, the fact that faculty salaries have risen cannot be the explanation for why students can no longer afford tuition (or say that they can no longer afford tuition). Thus, choice A is correct.

let's look at choice D:

(D) The university awards new students a large number of scholarships that are renewed each year for the students who maintain high grade averages.

Well, if many students used to get scholarship money but no longer do so (the ones who didn't maintain their grades), that could be a logical explanation for why many students can no longer afford the tuition. (Note that both the stimulus and this answer choice say "many").

kraizada84 · Answer

okay main funda is look out for any option that states students expenditure in some other direction or anything that just grabs students money that was actually intended for the tuition fee. while searching we get first one A and thats what we want. we have it lets move on..

The cost of a semester s tuition at a certain university is

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards