Comparisons - Problem Set

[shubhamjain1012]

#15: Courtney's experiences at Haleford, a large research university with renowned professors, affluent students, and imposing buildings, were unlike her high school on the reservation.

Can't the above sentence be corrected in the way mentioned below and if not why ?

Courtney's experiences at Haleford, a large research university with renowned professors, affluent students, and imposing buildings, were unlike those in her high school on the reservation.

[jnelson0612]

#15: Courtney's experiences at Haleford, a large research university with renowned professors, affluent students, and imposing buildings, were unlike her high school on the reservation.

Can't the above sentence be corrected in the way mentioned below and if not why ?

Courtney's experiences at Haleford, a large research university with renowned professors, affluent students, and imposing buildings, were unlike those in her high school on the reservation.

I think that for the sake of parallelism you would want to match your prepositions.

Her experiences at Haleford . . . were unlike those AT her high school.

[Willy]

I think MGMAT SC book (5th ed.) missed this point.

Please see Problem Set Q#15 of Chapter - 8 (Comparisons). Correct answer says,

Courtney’s experiences at Haleford, a large research university with renowned professors, affluent students, and imposing buildings, were unlike her experiences in high school on the reservation.

As mentioned above by Jamie Nelson, I also believe there should be AT in place of IN to maintain the parallelism. Or is it the case that we only need a preposition and that can be either AT or IN? Further, IN sounds odd to me here.

[jlucero]

I think both instances would be acceptable. This is an idiomatic difference in usage:

My experience in (time frame)
My experience at (place)

Jamie's sentence sounds better (and is probably how you would see it on a real SC problem), but notice how she adds an extra "her" after the preposition "at". This limits the high school down to one specific place.

My experience in high school.
My experience in the high school I attended.

Since the problem in the strategy guide refers to "high school on the reservation", this is more general. If it said "the high school on the reservation", then I think you would change the preposition.

[Willy]

Thank you for the reply sir. I have understood everything except the following part,

Since the problem in the strategy guide refers to "high school on the reservation", this is more general. If it said "the high school on the reservation", then I think you would change the preposition.

so, all this comes to the usage of THE. Sir, can you please elaborate it a bit?

Courtney’s experiences at Haleford, a large research university with renowned professors, affluent students, and imposing buildings, were unlike her experiences in high school on the reservation.

I believe in this sentence there is also HER after the Comparison marker - unlike. Doesn't it serve the same purpose as it is serving in the example of Jamie?

Thank you once again for the reply. Appreciate it.

[tim]

You are missing the point, and you certainly don't need to worry about usage of the word "the" here. All that matters is that we determine whether parallelism is violated. If you have a prepositional phrase on one side, you need a prepositional phrase on the other side. The prepositions do not have to be the same as long as they are both prepositions..

[Willy]

You are missing the point, and you certainly don't need to worry about usage of the word "the" here. All that matters is that we determine whether parallelism is violated. If you have a prepositional phrase on one side, you need a prepositional phrase on the other side. The prepositions do not have to be the same as long as they are both prepositions..

Yes, that's what exactly I wanted to listen when I wrote the first post but Joe's post made me bit confused. By the way, thank you for the post and clarifying.

[tim]

no problem. Joe brings up some good points; i just wanted to make sure you were focusing on the right priorities.. :)