Self-study
University president: Our pool of applicants has been shrinking over the past few years. ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████████ ██ ███ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ██ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ █████
Summary
The author concludes that if we want to increase the size of our applicant pool, we need to raise our tuition and fees.
Why does the author think this?
Because one possible explanation for the shrinking applicant pool is that tuition and fees are too low. It’s possible that prospective students and their parents see the low tuition/fees and think that the education they receive is not as good that provided by a university with higher tuition/fees.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the “possible” explanation is in fact applicable. Although the premises established that low tuition/fees MIGHT be the reason for a shrinking applicant pool, the author never established that it was actually a cause.
25.
The university president's argument requires ███ ██████████ ████
a
the proposed explanation ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ██ ████ ████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if the proposed explanation does NOT apply in this case — then we’d have no reason to think that raising tuition/fees would help increase the applicant pool size.
b
the quality of █ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████
The argument concerns perceptions of education quality — what people THINK about the quality of education that they’ll get. The author doesn’t have to assume anything about the ACTUAL quality of education.
c
an increase in ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████ █████████ █ ██████ █████████ ████
Not necessary, because the conclusion only asserts that raising tuition/fees is NECESSARY for increasing the applicant pool size. The author never asserts that it would be sufficient to increase applicant pool size.
d
there is no ██████████ ███████████ ███ ███ ████████████ █████████ █████████ ████
Not necessary, because even if there is an additional explanation for the university’s shrinking pool, what matters is which explanation is the correct one — which one actually applies to the situation?
e
the amount charged ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ██████ █████
Not necessary, because even if the tution HAS increased, it can still be too low to make students/parents confident in the quality of the education offered.