Three Ivy League schools have pulled out

Responding to a pm:

I don't see the problem here. There is only one modifier and that is modifying E-du as it should:

Three Ivy League schools have pulled out of E-du, an education consortium offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit, after professors and alumni complained that the program would cheapen the prestige of a degree.

The underlined part is an appositive. It renames and describes E-du. Notice that if you remove it, the sentence is still correct.

Three Ivy League schools have pulled out of E-du after professors and alumni complained that the program would cheapen the prestige of a degree.

Hi Veritas,

Is there any difference b/w pulled-out of and pulled out from.

Also, why is usage of "will" incorrect in D and E.???


Thanks,
Jai

I was torn between (C) and (E). The difference between the two is "offering" and "that offers." Can anyone explain why answer (C) is better than answer (E) in this regard?

Grammar issues have already been explained in a clear way: thus this is my meaning approach which leads to a two-three split

The meaning in sentence A is not logically sound.It is not likely that Ivy League Schools, after pulling out from E-du, start offering on-line courses, as "Offering" seems to convey, otherwise why did they pull out of it??

Also B has the same meaning issue: Ivy League won't start to offer opportunity to take online courses as "will" seems to suggest, otherwise there is no reason to pull out of E-du.

So after the split only C,D,E remain.

Hope this helps
If so please kudos...

I have seen both being used though 'of' is usually used in formal language.

Between will and would,
will is used to talk about the future, to make offers and promises e.g. I will go with you. We will get late. etc
would is used when talking about the past or in hypothetical situations e.g. It would be difficult to get in touch with her. I thought I would be late. etc

This is a hypothetical situation "the program would cheapen the prestige of a degree". We cannot say whether it will happen. It's hypothetical. If students are provided online courses, it would cheapen the prestige of a degree, hence three schools have pulled out.

applying e-gmat concepts, it is possible to easily identify the logical errors in this sentence.
Let's see the meaning of the sentence:

-> Three Ivy League schools have pulled out of E-du
-> Edu is an education consortium that offers undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit
-> These schools pool out after professors and alumni complained
-> they complained that the program would cheapen the prestige of a degree.

the only answer choice that follows the above structure is C, of course after eliminating other answer choices based on grammatical errors (will vs would)

Everything is clear except will/would thing.


Why "will" should not be used.

Now they are complaining something, so "will" could be suitable.


Am i wrong?

We should always ensure that intended meaning of question stem is not lost. Question stem shows uncertainty by using the word would that it may or may not reduce.Option which shows similar kind of uncertainty will be the right choice.

Hope that helps.

there is no verb for the subject education consortium

"would" makes better sense here than "will".
The universities PULLED (past tense) knowing that it WOULD be bad. "Would" is generally used to refer future events under specific conditions, while "will" is for a simple reference to the future.

I will go to the store.
If it weren't for my broken leg, i would go to the store.

Three Ivy League schools have pulled out of E-du, an education consortium, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit after professors and alumni complained that the program would cheapen the prestige of a degree.

-present perfect tense ‘have pulled’; action started in the past and was completed
-appositive: ‘education consortium’
-comma before participial ‘offering…’ is incorrect b/c if we removed the appositive ‘offering’ would modify the schools
-the placement of the part of the sentence that begins with the preposition ‘after professors…’ requires a comma b/c this suggests that the schools offered the opportunity after complaints were made

A. of E-du, an education consortium, offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit, after professors and alumni complained that the program would
-the placement of the comma before 'offering' is incorrect
-a comma is required before 'after'

B. from E-du, an education consortium, and will offer undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit, after professors and alumni have complained that the program would
-meaning change; the consortium IS the opportunity for undergrads to take online courses and this consortium is what would cheapen the degree
-conjunction ‘and’ signals the introduction of an DC as no IC would start with ‘will’

C. of E-du, an education consortium offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit, after professors and alumni complained that the program would (Correct)
-after makes it clear when the schools pulled out; the schools pulled out after the professors and alumni complained (simple past tense) which is followed nicely by ‘would cheapen’. Here, the ‘would’ is playing the role of a conditional

D. from E-du, an education consortium offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit, after professors and alumni complained that the program will
-a comma is needed before ‘after’ otherwise the meaning of the sentence changes and suggests that the online offering was made after the complaints
-future perfect ‘will cheapen’ is incorrect as this is a hypothetical

E. of E-du, an education consortium that offers undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit, after professors and alumni complained that the program will

Hi VeritasKarishma

Is that not an absolute phrase instead of an appositive?
Absolute phrase = noun + -ing ?

sheldongeorge - Read here about absolute phrases:
https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2014/0 ... -the-gmat/
It modifies a clause.

Here, we have an appositive, a modifier that renames a noun that it modifies.

The noun E-du is modified by the appositive "an education consortium offering undergraduate students the opportunity to take online courses for university credit".
E-du is a consortium (noun). The appositive phrase renames the noun.
e.g. Betty, my best friend, will visit me tomorrow.
Betty = my best friend (appositive)

Thank you Karishma! VeritasKarishma

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