Parrallelism in Comparisons

[ghong14]

According to the 2013 US NEWS report, attending and graduating from a top business school is still a goal of a majority of MBA students, like that of earlier MBA students.

(A) like that of earlier MBA students
(B) as that for earlier MBA students
(C) just as earlier MBA students did
(D) as have earlier MBA students
(E) as it was of earlier MBA students

This is a question that I had to modify for copyright purposes. The original forum has been shut down (og-review-10th-sc-73-t1595.html) But I am going over comparison questions and this problem has given me a headache and I really need some guidance.

I understand that "like" is incorrectly used because "like" must compare nouns not clauses. Here we are comparing clauses so that takes out A.

Now for answer choice B why can't "that" stand in for goal of MBA students? The structure seems parallel. Specifically when "that" is used in a comparison, does that function the same way as "it"? What should that refer to?

And for answer choice C why is "have" wrong?

Thank you in advance!

[RonPurewal]

Now for answer choice B why can't "that" stand in for goal of MBA students? The structure seems parallel. Specifically when "that" is used in a comparison, does that function the same way as "it"? What should that refer to?

the problem there isn't so much with "that", which is pretty much ok.
there are 2 problems here: "as" and "for".
* this kind of "as" has to compare entire clauses, not just things/nouns. (note that the correct answer choice (e) uses this kind of "as" correctly.)
* there's nothing parallel to "for...", so it's unclear exactly how that construction works.

And for answer choice C why is "have" wrong?

i don't see "have" anywhere in that choice.

if you're talking about choice (d), "have" doesn't make sense there, because it's not parallel to any verb that would make sense. Earlier students have ____ed what, exactly? there's no verb that can fill in that blank.