Self-study
The administration at a certain university has explained this year's tuition increase by citing increased spending on faculty salaries and on need-based aid to students. ████████ ████ ██████ ██████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████████ ██████████ █ █████ ████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████████████ ███ ███ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ███████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The university administration’s rationale for the school’s tuition increase is unconvincing. The university said the increase is due to increased costs associated with teachers’ salaries and need-based aid for students, but the budget does not reflect these claims.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that, while faculty salaries are only a small part of the school’s spending, it did not increase significantly enough from the previous year to justify the tuition increase.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████
a
With this year's ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██ █ ████████
This does not affect the argument. The author already notes that the budget shows a significant increase in scholarship aid (specifically, to academic scholarships).
b
With this year's ███████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ █ ████████
This weakens the argument by attacking the assumption that, while faculty salaries are a small part of the university’s budget, the amount spent on them did not significantly increase this year, which could potentially justify the tuition increase. (B) says this may be the case.
c
Faculty salaries at ███ ██████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████████ ████████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████████████ ███ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████████
This does not affect the argument. (C) says the increase in faculty salaries is not unusually large and, while students may be facing financial difficulties, the budget shows that the school is not putting more money to need-based aid.
d
Of the substantial █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ██ ██████████████ ██████ ██████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████████
This strengthens the argument by showing that the administration’s explanation is unreliable. While the school justified the increase by citing increased spending on need-based aid and faculty salaries, the costs outlined in (D) are actually the largest increases in the budget.
e
Because enrollment projections ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ ██ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ █████
This does not affect the argument, which is about whether the administration’s explanation is believable. (E) does not elaborate on the explanation or its reliability, making it irrelevant to the argument.