The university’s board of overseers have pledged commitment

Question

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The university’s board of overseers have pledged commitment not only to more scholarship money available to students in the coming year, but also  to the admission of a larger amount of students  from underrepresented minorities.

A) to the admission of a larger amount

B) to the admission of a greater number

C) the admission of a greater number

D) the admission of a larger number

E) the admission of a larger amount

generis · Answer

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kungfury42 · Answer

I think the correct idiomatic usage is "Not only X .. But also Y" where X and Y are parallel.

In this case, we have "not only to..." in the non-underlined portion of the stem so only the options which have "but also to..." should be correct.  Using this we can eliminate options C, D, and E.

Between A and B we have a choice between larger amount or greater number referring to the students. Since students are a countable quantity, I believe  greater number is more appropriate.

Hence, option B should be our answer.

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winterschool · Answer

The university’s board of overseers have pledged commitment not only to more scholarship money available to students in the coming year, but also to the admission of a larger amount of students from underrepresented minorities.

A) to the admission of  a larger amount   Incorrect

B)  to the admission of a greater number   Correct

C)  the admission  of a greater number  Incorrect

D)  the admission  of a larger number  Incorrect

E)  the admission  of a larger amount  Incorrect

correct parallelism - .............. not only to................., but also to............
Eliminate C, D & E
students is countable, so amount should be number; Eliminate A

Answer B

zhanbo · Answer

My answer is  (B) . It took me 50 seconds. The time spent would have been much reduced if the underlined part had been corrected to end at "a larger amount" rather than "a larger amount  of students ".

Also, "The university’s board of overseers  have " or "The university’s board of overseers  has "? I think "has" should be used in GMAT. It is good to be strict / rigid in actual GMAT test.

"not only X but also Z" requires strict parallelism between X and Y. Strict rules are actually fantastic because we can eliminate those answers that violate rules quickly and confidently. When we see "not only  to ", we insist on "but also  to ". Eliminate (CDE).

Between (A) and (B), "amount" cannot be used to modify countable nouns (such as "students"). So (A) is out. (B) must be the right answer.

It is almost always a good idea to read the complete sentence formed by (B) before committing the answer. There, I realized "...but also to the admission of a greater number from underrepresented minorities" does not make sense. A senseless sentence cannot be the right answer. Now, repeat the full process including actually checking answer (CDE) for some insidious tricks that might have eluded me. Finally, I realized the underlined part should end at "a larger amount" rather than "a larger amount of students".

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

greater number vs larger number vs larger amount

1)greater number trumps everything else , (A,D,E) out

2) parallelism should be maintained not only to .........but also to ........

THerefore IMO B

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

The university’s board of overseers have pledged commitment not only to more scholarship money available to students in the coming year, but also to the admission of a larger amount of students from underrepresented minorities.

A) to the admission of a larger amount Incorrect

B) to the admission of a greater number Correct

C) the admission of a greater number Incorrect

D) the admission of a larger number Incorrect

E) the admission of a larger amount Incorrect

correct parallelism - .............. not only to................., but also to............
Eliminate C, D & E
students is countable, so amount should be number; Eliminate A

Answer B

arjunb9 · Answer

IMO 
First split is for not only X but also X parallelism , not only to.. but also to ... . Therefore C,D & E are out.
Second between A & B, students are countable noun therefore one should opt for "greater number" then "larger amount".
So A is out. Hence B is the correct option.

100mitra · Answer

1. Students are countable Noun, and must be in Numbers, not in amount
2. idiom:  Not only  to X  ,  but also  to Y

Makes option B correct

VerbalBot · Answer

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The university’s board of overseers have pledged commitment

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The university’s board of overseers have pledged commitment

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