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CR: The US government has recently taken an initiative

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CR: The US government has recently taken an initiative

by TheGraduate » Sat Nov 12, 2016 5:08 am
The US government has recently taken an initiative to collect and publish information on the salaries of graduating students from colleges. The salaries of the students in their first year after graduation will be published for all colleges and subject fields the colleges offer. The idea is to help the students make more informed choices about the college and the field that they choose. While the intentions are good, the results might just be the opposite. Students who pick their field based primarily on post-graduation salaries, as opposed to passion for a field, will, in all likelihood, struggle in both school and career.

Which of the following options would help most to evaluate the given argument?

A) What is the number of colleges that will be covered by the government initiative?
B) Currently, what proportion of students who struggle in college also struggle in their careers?
C) Do some students currently pick their subject fields based on their passion?
D) Are there currently any good websites providing average salaries data for the students?
E) How will the government ensure that the data published on the salaries of the students is not biased against certain colleges?

Please elaborate on choices C and D.
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by MartyMurray » Sat Nov 12, 2016 6:15 am
The way to evaluate D is to consider the following.

The prompt talks of the results of making the information available.

If the answer to D were "Yes" then one might think that the results of the government plan would be limited to nonexistent, because other websites already provide the same information, and one might reasonably question whether providing information that is already provided would make much difference. (Note, choice D is not well written and does not clearly say that the other sites would provide information the same as what the government plans to provide, but I am going with the idea that that interpretation is in line with what was intended by the writer of the question.)

So D may seem to be useful in evaluating an argument about the results of the plan.

At the same time, this question is not about the DEGREE to which the plan will have results. This question is about the NATURE of any results of the plan. In fact, we would not really change the conclusion were we to rewrite it as, "While the intentions are good, the results, to the degree that there are any, might just be the opposite."

So D, the answer to which may affect the degree to which the plan has results but not the nature of any results of the plan, is irrelevant.

C, on the other hand, is helpful in evaluating the argument, because if the answer to C were "No," then, even without the salary information, the students would already be not taking their passions into account in making school choices, so their basing their choices on the salary information would not cause the effects described in the argument.

The correct answer is C.
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