Logical Reasoning

PT103 · S2 · Q5 In defending the Hyperion School

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In defending the Hyperion School of Journalism from charges that its program is of little or no value to its students, the dean of the school pointed to its recent success in placing students: 65 percent of its graduates went on to internships or jobs in print or broadcast journalism.

Conclusion

The Hyperion School of Journalism offers a valuable program to its students.

Evidence

65% of its graduates went on to internships or jobs in print or broadcast journalism.

Evaluate

The dean is defending the utility of the Hyperion School's program by pointing to the success of its graduates in securing positions in the field of journalism.

GIVEN THAT 65% of grads went on to internships or jobs in journalism, HOW CAN WE ARGUE this school's program is not valuable to students?

Maybe we could say the program itself may not be the reason for the graduates' success. We could challenge the idea that the program added significant value by introducing an alternate explanation for the placement success.

Maybe we could point to an alternate way they could have gotten internships or jobs that would have been cheaper / more efficient.

Maybe the school places you in an internship/job, but they've prepared you so poorly that you quickly get fired from that position and blacklisted in the industry.

Goal

Let's find an answer that allows us to argue that the school is not offering a lot of value to the students, or that offers an alternate explanation for why a majority of grads do end up getting internships/jobs in journalism.

5.

Which one of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the defense offered by the dean?

  1. Correct

    More than half of the

    Why this is right

    If more than half of the school's students were already employed in journalism and returned to improve their skills, the success in job placements could be attributed to their prior experience and not necessarily the value added by the Hyperion School's program. To put it another way, they didn't need this school to get an internship / job in journalism. They had already done that before they came to the school (Effect w/o Cause). So this undermines the idea that the School provided them with the value of "being able to get a job in journalism". The dean was assuming a difference: that before they came to the school, they wouldn't have been able to get these jobs.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    71% picked this

  2. Some newspaper editors do not

    Weaker Impact

    It somewhat undercuts the dean's evidence to hear that some people who are hiring for journalism positions don't consider going to a journalism school a necessity. But this is very weak because it's only talking about "some editors" (at least one), and the dean was never saying that you HAVE to go to a school to get a job. She was just saying that getting students a job was part of the value the school provided.

    15% picked this

  3. The number of cities with

    No Impact

    The number of cities with multiple newspapers doesn't impact whether the program directly contributes to its graduates' success in securing jobs or internships, or otherwise offers value to its students.

    2% picked this

  4. The program offered by the

    Unclear Impact

    In order for this do do anything, we'd have to know whether the peer institution do or don't provide something valuable to their students. Without knowing that, the fact these schools are all pretty similar doesn't tell us whether or not they're valuable.

    2% picked this

  5. The proportion of applicants to

    No Impact

    The change in the proportion of applicants admitted over the years does not directly relate to the program's value or its graduates' placement success. This just sounds like it's harder to get admitted to the Hyperion School these days, but that doesn't directly speak to whether the school provides any value (if anything, it sounds like students perceive that it DOES provide value, if the application process has become more competitive).

    9% picked this

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