016 Throughout the last two decades, those who earned gradua

[isha]

16. The following appeared as part of an article in the education section of a Waymarsh City newspaper.

“Throughout the last two decades, those who earned graduate degrees found it very difficult to get jobs teaching their academic specialties at the college level. Those with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially hard time finding such jobs. But better times are coming in the next decade for all academic job seekers, including those from Waymarsh. Demographic trends indicate that an increasing number of people will be reaching college age over the next ten years; consequently, we can expect that the job market will improve dramatically for people seeking college -level teaching positions in their fields.”

Above is the topic for analysis for argument. i was trying to think about the logical gaps in the argument.
One gap in the argument is - increase in number of people who will be reaching college age would result in more college graduates seeking job.
In short, the author omits the possibility that the number of job seeker may also increase.
What are other gaps in the argument if any ?

[raghuveer_v]

I have never tackled GMAT questions, but let me try,...

The gap in reasoning you pointed out is, ofcourse, correct.
And ...

Demographic trends indicate that an increasing number of people will be reaching college age over the next ten years; consequently, we can expect that the job market will improve dramatically for people seeking college -level teaching positions in their fields

How can we say that just an increase in the number of college-age people, will lead to an increase in teaching positions?

First, all these college-age students must actually find/be given admission into college.

Then, for teaching positions to increase, There must be some increase in either the number of colleges or number of courses/classes per college.

Otherwise, simply the faculty to student ratio might decrease due to increase in number of students, leaving the no of teaching positions same.

And another minor point ...

Those with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially hard time finding such jobs.

It doesn't explain the reason why they had especially hard time finding jobs.

even then, it says ...

with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially hard time finding such jobs. But better times are coming in the next decade for all academic job seekers, including those from Waymarsh.

how can it?


Raghuveer.

[paragtandon]

Here is my essay on this topic.

Please give inputs to make this better.

Thanks,

Parag

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I think author is oversimilifying when he says that with increased number of college age people available more teacher will be required hence the job market will improve for people seeking college level teaching postions and this will improve situation at Waymarsh University too. I find this argument unconvincing because t fails to address the liking of future generation, changes which may come in the new decade and fails to show that new people will indeed find it easier to find job as teacher.

Most conpicously, the author fails to prove the link between increased number of people reaching college age and the improvement of job market for teachers. Those new people reaching college age does not neccesarily mean that they will join college. Had author given more information about the trends in poplulation about joining college and colleges increasing the faculty with increased students, the link between increase in number of people and improvement in job market could be clearer.

Secondly, the reason for not finding jobs may not be that there were less number of people taking those class, but it could be many other things. Author fails to list other studies to nail this problem to the pupil. There could be many reasons that job market in teaching is bad. Many times students are not interested in some specific classes because there is no potential for making living in those subjects. This may reduce the number of students in the class and hence universty might stop that course.

Finally, It is known that there will always be more students than the teachers, hence not every student who gradutes can start teaching in his speciality. If there are not many jobs available in the given speciality except in the teaching, there will always be too many students vying for the same job and new students will find it as difficult as former student to get jobs in faculty. Author could make his assertion more compelling by providing more information about the kind of courses available in the Waymarsh university and the job prospects of those courses.

In conclusion, I find the argument that increased number of people at college attending age will relieve the difficulty in finding teaching jobs unconvincing. Author is oversimplifying the problem and he should give more information about the university and the courses offered in it. Author should also give clear reasons for linking number of people at college age and availability of teaching jobs.

[EasternM]

The following appeared as part of an article in the education section of a Waymarsh city newspaper:

“Throughout the last two decades, those who earned graduate degrees found it very difficult to get jobs teaching their academic specialties at the college level. Those with graduate degrees from Waymarsh University had an especially
hard time finding such jobs. But better times are coming in the next decade for all academic job seekers, including those from Waymarsh. Demographic trends indicate that an increasing number of people will be reaching college age
over the next 10 years; consequently, we can expect that the job market will improve dramatically for people seeking college-level teaching positions in their fields.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

The argument presented is not convincing. The author concluded that in next ten years, the problem of unemployment in collage level teaching will decrease because the increasing numbers of people are reaching to collage level. There are several questionable assumptions resulting in logical gap between the premise and the conclusion.

The major assumption of this argument is that the all the increasing people will study. This assumption will also be wrong because many people do not like to study or they can not afford to go collage. For example, In USA, only 50% people go to collage due to financial problem or having other responsibility like become parent in early age.

The validation of conclusion also depends on assuming that the all people going to attend the collage, a key concept omitted. For example, my brother had taken his degree from online. There are other alternative to earn a degree instead of going to collage. Now a days, people taking online classes has increased noticeably that now university are offering on line classes.

Finally, even the two assumptions discussed above were true, the argument would be not convincing because without providing any evidence, it required that majority of job seeker will get the job. In the USA only, more than hundred thousand people graduate from university looking for teaching job every year. So, in three decades, there will be more than half millions people looking for job in teaching.

In order to make conclusion more persuasive, the author would have to demonstrate the above discussed assumption are in fact true. Thus, providing evidence that all people going to attend the collage, all people going to study and most job seeker will get the job would stronger the link between the premise and the conclusion. Without any discussion of this evidence, however, it is not possible to evaluate the conclusion.