LSAT 118 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q15

LR Question 15 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The cost of a semester’s tuition at a certain university …

QUESTION TYPE: Paradox – EXCEPT

PARADOX: Students’ semester tuition is based on how many courses they take. The price of a course hasn’t risen in 4 years, but students are now struggling to afford tuition.

ANALYSIS: This is an EXCEPT question, meaning that four answers help explain the situation. One answer does not help explain it. That answer is correct.

First, let’s try to resolve the paradox. We’re looking for something that explains how tuition became less affordable without the per-course price increasing.

What could explain that? Here’s some possibilities:

• Students now have to pay more overall. Maybe they have to take more courses per semester, so even though each course costs the same, their total bill is higher.
• Students have less money available. Maybe the cost of living became more expensive, so even if their tuition stayed the same, they’re struggling to afford it.

A useful way to think about this is: Does this make students worse off financially or make university cost more overall?

If yes, it helps resolve the paradox and you eliminate it. If not, then it’s a good answer.

___________

1. CORRECT. This tells us something about the university’s expenses, but we’re only worried about the student’s tuition. Remember, the price per course has not changed. So they’re not using student tuition to subsidize this salary raise.
2. Tuition is based on the number of courses. Requiring students to take more courses means they pay more tuition overall, so it’s less affordable.
3. If things like rent, food, transportation, utilities, etc. rise, students may no longer be able to afford tuition even though the tuition itself has not changed.
4. So students may have enrolled with scholarships. If they later lose those scholarships because they fail to maintain the required grades, tuition becomes much harder to afford.
5. Students previously earned income through those jobs, and if those jobs disappear, their income decreases. That makes tuition more unaffordable.