The cost of a semester’s tuition at a certain university is based on

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

m1033512 · Answer

IMO A .

It was difficult to decide between A and D .

But in option D, few students may be unable to maintain their grade and they are not getting scholarship now .
They may claim that they can not afford it .

So best option is A .

B : number of course increases , cost increases

C : living cost also may push the cost up

E : Jobs are not available now to students, it will.push their cost up .

Award kudos if helpful.

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sahibr · Answer

The answer IMO and as per OA is A.

We are asked to choose the option that DOES NOT resolve the discrepancy.

A: Faculty salaries have risen slightly: If faculty salaries have risen slightly, and keeping all other university expenditures constant as there is no mention of them, there is no reason as to why in the four years of education, students should go from being able to afford the education to not being able to afford the education. Hence A does not resolve the discrepancy.

B: The number of courses per semester increase as their education advances: If tuition fee is directly proportional to number of courses, tuition fee increases per year. Hence the student was able to pay initially but was not able to afford his/her education in the subsequent years.

C: The cost of living in the vicinity has increased: If a student has a fixed yearly budget from which he/she dispenses all his/her expenses, then he/she needs to pay more for rental leaving less money for his/her education.

D: The university awards new students a large number of scholarships that are renewed each year for the students who maintain high grade averages: The key word here is 'NEW STUDENTS'. The uni awards new students with the condition that they keep up their GPA which shall be reviewed each year. If the students were awarded scholarships when they began their course could not maintain the required GPA, scholarship was rescinded. Hence they would have to pay more for their education in subsequent years.

E: A lot of jobs at the uni which were part time jobs were converted to full time employee jobs: Students who had planned their education keeping in mind the constant income that was coming from their part time job were asked to step down from their positions. Since their income was slashed, and expenditure remained the same, they were unable to afford it.

Skywalker18 · Answer

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- Correct

(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- incorrect; this explains the paradox -- more subjects --> higher tution

(C) The cost of living in the vicinity of the university has risen over the last two years- incorrect; higher living expense

(D) The university awards new students a large number of scholarships that are renewed each year for the students who maintain high grade averages- incorrect, this needs us to assume that students have not been able to maintain high GPAs (unlike A seems a probable explanation)

(E) The university has turned many of its part-time office jobs, for which students had generally been hired, into full-time, nonstudent positions- incorrect, no assistantships

Answer A

TheNightKing · Answer

nightblade354  Hello
Can you help me eliminate D here?

A is a contender because the statement says "slightly" so it should not have much impact on the students being able to afford the tuition.
I understand D needs an assumption but still A isn't doing a good job either.

gvij2017 · Answer

I appreciate you explanation but I have a small doubt. 
 Firstly, you assumed cost of semester is proportional to number of courses or like cost is increasing with number of courses but in argument it is no where mentioned. The argument states that  the cost of a semester’s tuition at a certain university is based on the number of courses
 . The cost might increase or decrease. 
Similarly I have to assume in D that students won't be able to maintain the grades. Students are doubtful for themselves about their future records of GRADES.

A could be winning answer as it is nowhere connected with the cost of tuition and number of courses. It is like deviating from main argument.

That is my point. Can you tell me for such kind of CR problem, to what extent additional assumptions can be considered to mark question correct?
Many times I did wrong because of not doing so.

chetan2u · Answer

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.

Reasons why D should be eliminated..

Argument: Cost of tuition per semester is dependent on the number of courses. Cost per course is SAME, but tuition that was affordable initial is no longer affordable...
What could be the answers.
It has to be something related to excess expenditure that students have to do now, that is shortage of funds for some reason..

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
 Faculty salaries do NOT affect the tuition fees. SO, should be a strong contender for our 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
 Now, the cost per course, say y, has NOT changed but the number of courses that the student has to enroll has increased, say from x to x+1, so the cost has increased from xy to xy+y. So yes there is an increase in expenses.

(C) The cost of living in the vicinity of the university has risen over the last two years
 Again expenses have increased.

(D) The university awards new students a large number of scholarships that are renewed each year for the students who maintain high grade averages
 So, initially a lot of NEW students are given scholarship, but from the next semester it is given on basis of high grade averages. It is safe to assume that at least few would be unable to get the scholarship, so increase in expenses. But, yes, to assume that many of them will not get high grade averages is a bit far-fetched or unconvincing reasoning. May be in some other question this very assumption could be a reason to eliminate the choice. However, we are looking for some help from these choices and the choice does help in showing some excess expenditure.

(E) The university has turned many of its part-time office jobs, for which students had generally been hired, into full-time, nonstudent positions
 Again, the earnings have reduced, resulting in shortage of funds

A is clearly NOT doing anything to show  shortage of funds for some reason , whereas D does do a bit to resolve the discrepancy.

A

unraveled · Answer

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 - CORRECT. Although it seems that this one requires an assumption but it may be so that the raise was possible because of some other parameter which helps university earn money. All in all A and D look good but A has slight advantage.

(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 - WRONG. More fees required now hence the claim of students.

(C) The cost of living in the vicinity of the university has risen over the last two years - WRONG. Clearly resolves.

(D) The university awards new students a large number of scholarships that are renewed each year for the students who maintain high grade averages - WRONG. 2nd best and its a good one. Only issue with this is that schols are for NEW students among whom only a few may reiceive it as the period of four years goes by.

(E) The university has turned many of its part-time office jobs, for which students had generally been hired, into full-time, nonstudent positions - WRONG. Resolves since there is a reason it brings that lead to students' claim.

Answer A.

Auro411 · Answer

Lets go through this question stem:

Paradox is: Even though the cost per course at that university hasn't risen, many of its students still couldn't afford the tuition now when as comapred to they enrolled for the first time.

The answer to this Question is answer which doesnt seem to explain the paradox, as it is an exception type of question, and still you pre-think one of the answers could be the required number of courses has risen, etc.

(A) Faculty salaries aren't related to semester tuition fees. Keep it as a strong  contender.

(B) This is our pre-think answer, which correctly resolves the paradox.

(C) If the cost of living increases, then the budget for education shrinks; hence, it also completely explains the paradox.

(D) This also explains that every year, some people are not able to get a scholarship while not being able to maintain a higher grade. This also resolve the paradox, but this is a tempting option.

(E) This can also explain the paradox, that earlier for which students have been hired are fully allocated to non-students, which affects their income and savings, which leads to not being able to afford their tution.

Hence, the Answer Option A is the right answer.

The cost of a semester’s tuition at a certain university is based on

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The cost of a semester’s tuition at a certain university is based on

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