PrepTest 103

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Weaken

Stimulus Summary:
Charges: The HSoJ doesn't give students value.

Dean: 65% of grads get internships/jobs in journalism, so we do provide value.

Answer Anticipation:
The Dean's response to the charges of uselessness relies on the placement rate of their recent graduates to demonstrate value—65% of grads end up in journalism positions. However, there's no indication that this is a good number! Maybe that's relatively low, and other journalism schools have a, say, 80% placement rate.

Any answer that calls that 65% placement rate into question as highlighting "value" can undermine this defense, so let's find an answer bringing up something on that front.

Answer Explanation:
If more than half—i.e., 50+%—of the students started with jobs in journalism, then that calls the defense into question in two ways. First, it suggests that a 65% placement rate isn't that great, since it didn't improve the situation for most students (maybe 15% had a job in journalism that didn't have such a job before). Second, since this answer suggests most students went to HSoJ to improve their skills, their job placement rate doesn't speak to that. If they ended up back in journalism positions without improved skills, they may not have received any value from the education. By undermining the reasoning behind the Dean's defense, this answer weakens it and is therefore correct.

Key Takeaway:
This argument highlights a common gap in the LSAT. The conclusion here makes a judgment—that a school provides value. Generally, when a conclusion presents a judgment, it needs to establish the criteria by which that judgment will be made. Here, there's no discussion of what is valuable to journalism students, and so the provided criteria can't be assumed to be relevant.

Incorrect. While editors may not view journalism school as necessary training, they may still view it as valuable training, and thus HSoJ may provide value. This answer also doesn't address the placement rate at all.

Incorrect. Whether or not going into journalism is the smartest move right now is out of scope of the question as to whether a journalism school provides value to its students. The education may not be as valuable because of the relatively few positions, but it could provide value to the students nonetheless (e.g., by making them more likely to get those remaining jobs).

Incorrect. This answer equates the value provided by HSoJ to other journalism schools. Without knowing whether those schools do or don't provide value, however, this answer doesn't let us infer anything about the value that HSoJ provides its own students.

Incorrect. The admissions rate is completely out of scope as to the value provided by the school. That rate could change for any number of reasons unrelated to the quality of education.