Comparison - Idiom

Question

<< Just like in the U.S., business schools in India are also ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to its students after passing out. >>

(A) Just like in the U.S., business schools in India are also ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to its students after passing out.

(B) Like in the U.S., business schools in India are ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to their students after passing out.

(C) As it is in the U.S., ranking of business schools in India is done on the basis of the employment opportunities available to the students after they pass out.

(D) Business schools in India are ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to students after passing out, just as it is in the U.S.

(E) Business schools in India are also ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to its students after passing out, just like in the U.S.

sam2304 · Answer

We are comparing how bschools are ranked in US with how bschools are ranked in India. So we need 'as' here, 'like' is used to compare nouns.

Eliminate A, B and E

Between C and D, C is right.

C - as it is in the US, ranking of bschools in India
D - it has no clear antecedent. - Business schools,employment opportunities, students are all plural and ranked cannot be used as an antecedent as it acts as a verb here.

IMO C.

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Birottam Dutta · Answer

IMO C as well.

Bill@VeritasPrep · Answer

sam2304 wrote:We are comparing how bschools are ranked in US with how bschools are ranked in India. So we need 'as' here, 'like' is used to compare nouns.

Eliminate A, B and E

Between C and D, C is right.

C - as it is in the US, ranking of bschools in India
D - it has no clear antecedent. - Business schools,employment opportunities, students are all plural and ranked cannot be used as an antecedent as it acts as a verb here.

IMO C.

Good explanation. D would work better if the ending phrase were "just as they are in the U.S."

I also love the wording "passing/pass out." I'm picturing students fainting after receiving job offers

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karthikpandian19 · Answer

GMAT Experts and all of you who have replied for "C". See the below one"

"""This is a standard type of sentence correction question in the GMAT. It tests the usage of 'Comparison'
For more information and practice questions of this type,
Refer to the chapter - 'Comparison' in Crack-GMAT Verbal Tutorial.

Explanation
'Just as it is in the U.S.' is the correct way to Compare two similar things as in this case, not 'just like…'

Also, 'business schools' being plural, the pronoun has to be 'their' and not 'its.'

On these two bases, we can rule out options A, B, and E.

In case of option C, the pronoun 'they' towards the end of the sentence has a ring of ambiguity to it, as it is not clear whether the they stands for students or for business schools.

This leaves us with option D, which is the correct answer."""

karthikgmat · Answer

I went for D initially . I'm doing good..

Spidy001 · Answer

A , B and E - use like. like is generally used to compare nouns. That leaves us with C and D. D - pronoun error - it . should be their Answer is C.

Bill@VeritasPrep · Answer

That explanation leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not sure how it can claim C has a pronoun error while D doesn't:

(D) Business schools in India are ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to students after passing out, just as it is in the U.S.

There are two singular nouns to which "it" could refer: "India" and "basis." Is it "India" that is "just as it is in the US"? That wouldn't make sense. Is it "basis" that is "just as it is in the US"? That wouldn't make sense either. The sentence is trying to say that the ranking of schools is the same in India as it is in the US, but "ranking" is not used as a noun in D.

I don't see how "they" in C is ambiguous:

As it is in the U.S., ranking of business schools in India is done on the basis of the employment opportunities available to the students after they pass out.

"Students" and "they" are in phrases describing the "basis of employment opportunities available." It would not make sense for "they" to refer to "business schools."

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karthikpandian19 · Answer

I too now feel after seeing all these explanations that you are right but still there is a small of sense of confusion why D was validated

Bill@VeritasPrep wrote:That explanation leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not sure how it can claim C has a pronoun error while D doesn't:

(D) Business schools in India are ranked on the basis of the employment opportunities available to students after passing out, just as it is in the U.S.

There are two singular nouns to which "it" could refer: "India" and "basis." Is it "India" that is "just as it is in the US"? That wouldn't make sense. Is it "basis" that is "just as it is in the US"? That wouldn't make sense either. The sentence is trying to say that the ranking of schools is the same in India as it is in the US, but "ranking" is not used as a noun in D.

I don't see how "they" in C is ambiguous:

As it is in the U.S., ranking of business schools in India is done on the basis of the employment opportunities available to the students after they pass out.

"Students" and "they" are in phrases describing the "basis of employment opportunities available." It would not make sense for "they" to refer to "business schools."

Bill@VeritasPrep · Answer

I would be extremely skeptical of that source. Pass/passing out is not an idiomatic construction and certainly would not appear on the GMAT. If a sentence like this were to show up, it would make more sense to use graduate/graduating instead of pass/passing out.

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