TheGraduate wrote:Sorry to be asking these many questions. The sentence sounds totally off to me.
I'm sort of trying to make sure I don't go wrong on this type of question again.
Could we write it as:
More than three times as many independent institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees of under $8,000 a year as that charge over $16,000.
"that" being parallel to "independent institutions of higher education" ?
In that case would the the two italicized parts be parallel to each other ?

No.
that (singular) cannot serve to refer to institutions (plural).
Also, when that serves as the subject of the second clause in a comparison, it must be followed by a MODIFIER -- one whose purpose is to REPLACE A MODIFIER attached to the subject of the first clause.
The amount of pollutant emitted by Car X is twice that emitted by Car Y.
Here, the red modifier after that (emitted by Car Y) serves to replace the blue modifier attached to the subject of the first clause (emitted by Car X).
In your sentence, that is not followed by a modifier, so the comparison is not viable.

The OA to the SC above is correct as written.
Rather than try to rewrite the OA, strive to understand WHY it is correct as written.

Hi Mitch,

You use omission and implied word analysis in many questions. Is this skills tested in GMAT? I find it tough to use in the time-constrain. I might be lacking in it conceptually.

Similar to your initial solution for this question, can't I eliminate answers just basis parallelism?

Regards,
Ajitesh

GMATGuruNY wrote:

TheGraduate wrote:Sorry to be asking these many questions. The sentence sounds totally off to me.
I'm sort of trying to make sure I don't go wrong on this type of question again.
Could we write it as:
More than three times as many independent institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees of under $8,000 a year as that charge over $16,000.
"that" being parallel to "independent institutions of higher education" ?
In that case would the the two italicized parts be parallel to each other ?

No.
that (singular) cannot serve to refer to institutions (plural).
Also, when that serves as the subject of the second clause in a comparison, it must be followed by a MODIFIER -- one whose purpose is to REPLACE A MODIFIER attached to the subject of the first clause.
The amount of pollutant emitted by Car X is twice that emitted by Car Y.
Here, the red modifier after that (emitted by Car Y) serves to replace the blue modifier attached to the subject of the first clause (emitted by Car X).
In your sentence, that is not followed by a modifier, so the comparison is not viable.

The OA to the SC above is correct as written.
Rather than try to rewrite the OA, strive to understand WHY it is correct as written.