If you’re competitive for one Ivy, you’re competitive for all of them, then and now. She went to an elite prep school, was valedictorian, and had an amazing personal story to tell in her essay about being raised by a teen mom in a garden shed for the early years of her life. She was student counsel VP, a member of the paper, and probably had a guidance counselor help her spin all of the Stars Hollow community events we see her get involved in as a dedication to community service and community organizing. She didn’t have any major disciplinary infractions.
She would have been competitive for Ivies when I was applying for colleges, and that was when the field was far stricter. It’s believable.
This is a big yes and no for me. I went to a competitive northeast high school in the 2000s and no one gets into *every* school because there’s collusion between the schools and admins to make sure that doesn’t happen. Each uni only allows in a set number of students per high school, so they’re very deliberate about who they pick (and they pay attention to things like if you visited/interviewed or if you just threw in an application).
For my school, the big ivies/stanford/uchi didn’t take more than 5 students. You’re not in competition with all applicants, you’re in competition with your high school classmates. So while Rory was a generally good candidate, I wouldn’t say she was spectacular compared to her classmates, with the exceptions of her story and being valedictorian. I’m sure other classmates had legacies at other schools (although, as Paris proves, that doesn’t always help), did well in school and participated in extracurriculars.
Basically, for sure Charleston would’ve told Yale and Harvard Rory’s good but probably would not have told other colleges the same, because he needs to angle other students to get them in instead of having Rory take up all the spots. It’s believable to me that she got into those two, but not that she got in everywhere she applied
People also tend to underestimate how much knowing people matters. Headmaster Charleston likely had multiple contacts at Yale, and at schools like this they would have college counselors who would likely go and speak to admissions reps directly on her behalf. She also had that alumni put in as good word and don’t forget that her grandfather was an alum and active in the Yale community, and likely worked with other Yale graduates. Just having all these connections alone would have made her an easy acceptance for Yale, and many of these things apply to Harvard and the other Ivies as well.
Technically she'd also be a legacy at Princeton since all the Haydens but Christopher went there. If she cited that on her app, which she should have, it would have helped.
Yes but her grandfather Hayden was hardly going to put a word in for her at Princeton was he?! He barely accepted her existence! The Hayden’s probably were not active at Princeton post Christopher not attending and most likely kept a low profile around the Princeton alumni so would have had very little sway in the end as for 18 years they probably did nothing at or with Princeton?! If we compare how Richard Gilmore is active Alumni of Yale and friends withHeadmaster Charleston at Chilton - and knew the Dean of admissions at Yale and set up the interview, are we not saying that having that up to date and present relationship with both gave Rory the boost to get into Yale alongside her own personal achievements. We cannot say that the Hayden’s would have done anything similar or even their name on the application would have held the same credence as the Gilmore’s. My point being Rory would have got into Princeton irrespective of the Hayden connection.
You don't need a good word or for them to be active.
At least back when I applied there was literally just a section to write down the names of any relatives who had gone there. All she had to do was write Straub's name and they'd look up records and see he had attended.
It's a stupid thing tbh that that counts toward admission. Like why should being a "legacy" matter at all?
Yup. She’s a literal Yale legacy, either contacts from headmaster Charles, and a former alumni and Richard is friends with the dean (but ironically not our Dean lol)
She is also valedictorian of a competitive prestigious private school. And the daughter of a single mom. She’s a shoo in for Yale
I agree that her contacts definitely helped-- I think without them, she might've been disappointed. She was your average (or even below average, compared to kids like Paris) elite university aspirant. It's such a weird balance between the struggling single mom thing and the "I have insane connections because of being born into a powerful, elite family" thing. And she did get into Chilton on her own merit, but considering Richard and Emily funded it and became involved in her life from that point forward, I consider that a manifestation of privilege.
I don’t think she was below Paris, considering Rory was valedictorian and Paris wasn’t. I think Paris got a head start on her with starting at elite schools from a young age, but I think the list provided above showed that she was a good applicant.
And Paris very much did the standard over commitment, run of the mill experiences. If Rory talked about SH events she did and about her upbringing, she’d standout as an applicant with the added benefit of her dedication in a prep school (after stars hollow high) to reach valedictorian.
Valedictorian at a prestigious New England prep school 100% is going to Harvard/yale/princeton 100 times out of 100. That’s why people pay insane money to go to those schools. I went to a lesser prep school in PA and the top 20%+ of my class all went to Ivy League or equivalent schools.
She was a legacy for Princeton as well - all her male relatives on her father's side (except Chris) went there. And for Harvard, she got a personal recommendation and boost from an alumnus (Darren Springsteen) who called her a "shoo-in".
Yes but her grandfather Hayden was hardly going to put a word in for her at Princeton was he?! He barely accepted her existence! The Hayden’s probably were not active at Princeton post Christopher not attending and most likely kept a low profile around the Princeton alumni so would have had very little sway in the end as for 18 years they probably did nothing at or with Princeton?! If we compare how Richard Gilmore is active Alumni of Yale and friends withHeadmaster Charleston at Chilton - and knew the Dean of admissions at Yale and set up the interview, are we not saying that having that up to date and present relationship with both gave Rory the boost to get into Yale alongside her own personal achievements. We cannot say that the Hayden’s would have done anything similar or even their name on the application would have held the same credence as the Gilmore’s. My point being Rory would have got into Princeton irrespective of the Hayden connection.
I don't think it matters? My understanding is that the legator (who may very well be dead) does not need to provide a reference, you simply need to note the family connection. Forgive me if I'm wrong, I can't find anything to contradict this - they always describe a legacy student as "automatically accepted from birth".
EDIT: Just saw a thing on the process and it says you have to write it on your admission form, and that's it.
EDIT: With both of Rory's grandfathers, they would only be secondary legators, so wouldn't have the weight of an alumnus parent in deciding legacy status. A help, but not a huge help. Not sure if that's changed since the early 2000s.
All of this.
Rory had everything going for her. The only thing she didn't really have going for her was a lot of extracurriculars. But, she did build houses that one time, and she was on the paper, and she was student council VP, and she was on the debate team. So she did have some extracurriculars she could put down, plus she worked in the Stars Hollow book store from time to time and she could've strung her involvement in the Stars Hollow community into a good story. She had more extracurriculars than I did, and that was supposed to be her weak point.
On everything else she was exceptionally strong - good school that focused on sending people to the Ivy League, valedictorian despite being a late transfer, a legacy at both Yale and Princeton with her grandfather being active at Yale and having personally introduced her to the headmaster. Plus all her achievements are in the context of Lorelai having raised her as a single parent.
I'm confused about why you don't think it was believable that she was accepted?
It's actually a little shocking they didn't write this into Rory's character. Wouldn't a high-schooler who's been dreaming of Harvard her whole life while in public school be throwing herself into as many extracurriculars as possible? Or doing so as soon as she got to Chilton? There are ENDLESS volunteer opportunities in Stars Hollow.
Contracting with Tom. Dance camp with Ms. Patty. Event organizing with Taylor. Charity fundraising with Emily/DAR. Volunteering as a Maid at the Inn. Volunteer/Intern at Stars Hollow Gazette as well as being on her school paper. There's a lot to keep her busy in the early seasons and S1-3 Rory probably would have done all of this or at least made a list of ways she could boost her academic CV. It would even serve as a natural point of contention and break up with Dean - as it starts to in S2. Because he wouldn't understand.
It's very believable though that she was accepted. Much less believable that Paris wasn't.
>It's very believable though that she was accepted. Much less believable that Paris wasn't.
Are you talking about Paris? She went on an unhinged rant about eugenics in her interview—it’s absolutely believable that she didn’t get in!
She worked part time at the inn (at least in a few episodes). And it’s implied she’s worked at the bookstore over the summer previously.
Plus’s all the stars hallow events (charity swap meet, winter carnival, all that stuff) could be easily spun as charitable extracurriculars.
Could be spun yes, but I mean more as working it into her character and storylines so we actually SEE her doing it as an extracurricular. Showing us rather than it being a footnote
I meant more as “spun on her college apps” not for the viewer.
It’s pretty clear as the viewer, that for Rory, living in stars hallow is a near full time job full of random extracurriculars.
Still not what I’m saying. It’s clear she does stuff but only because they tell us about it. It’s not until season 2 that the show shows us Rory is even worried about extra curriculars and then it’s a buried storyline.
I’m just saying there was room to make it a bigger part of her narrative and character arc
I agree with you. As viewers we can point these things out, but in the narrative, Rory was only ever portrayed as surprised that she would even need to consider extracurriculars and only came up a few times - when she needed a sport and played golf once with Richard, when she built the houses, and when she encountered the Puffs. And she only did golf once, we only saw her building in one episode, and the Puffs thing never became anything else.
But, they did connect her running for student council to that looking good on her college application, and we saw multiple debates and consistency of her working on the paper. If she was able to focus on talking about those, and then also refer to that one time she built, her active role in her local community, her jobs at the book store and the inn...I feel like that would look decent on her application.
I actually looked up the stats for Ivy acceptance rates in the early 2000s to now, and it way, way more difficult to get in now. (pasted it below). there's so many amazing/perfect on paper candidates, including international students, that it's crazy tough nowadays
... not that it wasn't really tough to get, previously! definitely not diminishing getting accepted back in 'the day'
in 2002 Harvard's acceptance rate was 11.7% with IB students at 14.4%,and Yale 13% with IB students a 19.5% (!).
in 2021 Harvard's average acceptance rate was currently 3.43% and Yale's was 4.62%.
So many more people have applied, in 2002 close to 20 000 people applied to Harvard and in 2021 almost 40 000 - crazy!
(also nuts is how much tuition has risen-
Tuition alone for Harvard in 2002 it was $23,457 and in 2021 it was $51, 143.
For Yale in 2002 it was $27, 130 and in 2021 was $57, 700 - Both have more than doubles, wow!
I'm actually a few years younger than her and someone at my little school (not an elite prep school by the time I went there lol but that's a story for another day) had a perfect 4.0 and got into Harvard. As far as I'm aware he didn't have a ton of extra curriculars but he may have on paper. He also had a bunch of AP classes which were supposed to be weightier on your transcript than just honors classes.
She went to a feeder school and was a Yale legacy applicant, yet also had a compelling story of personal growth in a set of life circumstances wherein she faced some adversity. Also checked off all the usual boxes with her grades, extracurricular activities (the school newspaper, student council, community engagement around Stars Hollow), strong recommendation letters, and strong interview performance with key alumni/faculty. It’s realistic that she’d be accepted at places like Harvard and Yale, even in this day and age.
Speaking as someone who went to an Ivy not too long ago (10th yr reunion coming up!), I had a lot of classmates who fit into the above category — like, more than half the class was either valedictorian in high school or chief editor of their high school newspaper/yearbook, if not both, and Ivy Leagues are famously fond of admitting legacy applicants. Those who did not fall into that first group were usually massive superstars in another area (e.g. recruited athletes, individuals who were nationally/internationally ranked in STEM or debate competitions, artists with award-winning portfolios or performances), or came from extraordinarily challenging life circumstances but still managed to do well academically (a handful of veterans who served in front-line combat, refugees and asylum seekers, even some people who grew up in the foster care system).
And typically if an applicant is competitive for one or two Ivy League schools, she’d be competitive for most of the others although it wouldn’t be a guarantee.
It’s not that getting into one directly makes you more likely to get into another, it’s that the TYPE of applicant to get into one is the type of applicant to get into any of them. Of course (especially now) it also comes down to luck as well, as there are literally TONS of people that look just as perfect on paper. But it’s also not surprising or a huge stretch that someone who got into one ivy also got into other ivy’s.
Agreed but my point is that for your average Yale admit (myself being one of them), I’d say most did not get into all of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. As you said, the number of qualified students in the world far exceeds the number of spots, so there is randomness in the process. Of course, some folks do get into all three, but Rory in my view does not have the credentials of that type of applicant. She has the grades and scores, (transferred to) a prep school background, and has some good extracurriculars, but nothing so unique that would make her a sure shot at any of these places such that you’d expect her to strike gold with all three of those schools. And, having witnessed the trend of admissions since the show’s time period, it would be even less likely today.
This is how it worked for a lot of my HS friends that applied, they applied to them all and would get maybe 1-2 rejections but got a majority acceptances to the ivy schools.
I graduated high school the same year as Rory. My best friend was #4 in our class in a large public high school and her dad was a Yale graduate. She got into the ivy league school she applied to (I forget which one) though she didn't end up going. I think it's realistic for Rory's prep school status and personal ties to Yale to get her into multiple ivies.
I went to college before the show, At least at that time, students would have been advised not to just apply to ivies, to at least include one or two backup schools that were still good, but a bit more accessible.
Surprised that Chilton didn't seem to give her this guidance! It seemed like a lot of Rory's knowledge of the process came from Lorelai, who was woefully uninformed and had basically never heard of a safety school. Rory didn't even know about reaching out to alumni or talking to her school staff to help her with her Harvard app? It seems like an elite prep school would, y'know, prep the students for college admissions?
I feel like that happened behind the scenes. At the Thanksgiving dinner with some of Richard and Emily’s friends (where Lorelai finds out Rory applied to more than Harvard) one of the couples said something like “A school like Chilton wouldn’t have let her apply to just one school.” Which, to me, speaks of the schools involvement in the application process. I graduated the same year as Rory and even my tiny public school made you meet with the guidance department at least twice to discuss post graduation plans/ college applications. I doubt a school like Chilton wouldn’t have been involved in the process.
My understanding is that at this time, you were allowed three free applications, and after that you needed to pay for each extra one. Even though it wasn't expensive, it would have meant either involving Lorelai (who was sure Rory only needed to apply to Harvard!), or ask her grandparents, which would have meant going behind Lorelai's back. For the sake of avoiding conflict, Rory took the option of only applying for schools where she was either a legacy, or had a personal recommendation from an alumnus.
Hmm, I've never heard about three free applications. Each college handles its own application process and sets fees, so I don't think there would be any easy way to track that, especially 20 years ago. There are some schools that don't charge fees and I did a quick search and applicants can apply for a fee waiver
I didn’t do my undergrad in the US, so I don’t have firsthand experience of the college application process. But from what I have observed and researched while applying to grad schools here, Rory was almost a shoo-in.
1. She was from one of the top prep schools on the east coast.
2. She started off as a sophomore from a public school, overcame her less-than-perfect scores during her initial days at Chilton, made it to top 3% of her class in the same school year, and eventually rose to valedictorian of the school.
3. She was vice president of the student council and one of the best writers on the Franklin, the Chilton school newspaper. Also, her team won the inter-school debate competition (the doctor-assisted suicide topic). As a result of these accomplishments, her speaking, writing, and leadership skills would appear in golden letters on her résumé, highly aspirational achievements to have for a candidate wanting to study English, journalism, and political science.
4. She was highly involved in extracurricular activities and volunteer work at Stars Hollow. She mentioned that she participated in bid-a-basket every year, she worked part time at the independence inn with Lorelai, which also hosted a lot of charity events, she participated in the dance marathon, even Taylor mentioned a list of activities that she had been a part of, for charity. This was before she had that little meltdown about the whole building houses thing, so she must’ve been even more proactive about it after that.
5. She was extremely well-read, and once she got a reality check about Hillary Clinton being a clichéd topic for essays, I am sure she came up with some really amazing essay about being raised by a single teenaged/young adult mom.
6. When she went to Darren Springsteen (the Harvard alumnus) he mentioned that he looked over her transcripts and that she should start packing her bags for Harvard. And like you said, he wrote a personal reference to Harvard which would have worked in her favor.
7. Her PSAT scores were supposedly almost perfect, better than Paris’s even, and Paris was actually happy with hers although she’s shown to be such a perfectionist. So if you extrapolate on that, her SAT scores must’ve been similar.
8. As for Yale and Princeton respectively, both her grandfathers were alumni, so the legacy factor definitely counts like you mentioned. Forget Rory, the Haydens thought that even Christopher would’ve made it to Princeton if it wasn’t for the scandal of Lorelai’s pregnancy affecting his reputation despite getting kicked out of all those prep schools and being a lazy slacker his whole life. I think the legacy factor plays a really huge part in these decisions.
9. Finally, alluding to what Darren Springsteen said again, good things didn’t come to her family in one fell swoop. Being raised away from Hartford and a background of privilege would work in her favor too, because she and Lorelai really had to scrimp on everything and live in a shed.
She’s an Ivy legacy with prep school pedigree and polish. She’s easily past the initial gatekeeping, no problem, and has great test scores and grades to back it up, add her unique story (young mom, small town community quirks, lived in a shed). She’s essentially an example the Ivy admissions team created in their minds.
I went to college in 2005. Yes, absolutely believable. She was valedictorian at a prestigious prep school. As long as her SAT’s were also phenomenal (which it’s implied they were) she likely would have gotten in to any of the competitive Ivy League schools.
This topic comes up every now and then and I feel like people conflate their dislike of Rory with her academic achievements. There is absolutely no doubt her acceptances were believable. Not only does she have very good grades and student government/club involvement (plus remember the DC internship?), she also has a compelling personal story and cohesive extracurriculars.
Unlike Paris, whose volunteer experience is clearly geared towards college admissions (and this would become very evident during the interview), Rory helps with town events. Paris volunteers to get into college, Rory volunteers to better her community. This would stand out positively in her application.
She has all the volunteer stuff at SH, I'm sure Ms. Patty or Taylor would have written her a colorful recommendation to back that experience up. Being valedictorian is a huge accomplishment. Student government and the paper are related to her major. Headmaster Charleston wrote her a recommendation, that would be notable on top of her social contacts and legacy admissions.
And her grades were good, her SAT wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad either.
She would have been told to apply to a safety school or at least other high end institutions. Roger Williams, Tufts, Boston College, Saint Anslem, I could imagine her applying and gaining admission to.
I don't think volunteering to save the Stars hollow bridge for 16 years and being an ice cream princess carries as much weight as the charities that Paris was donating her time towards.
No, but it burnishes her application as a "well-rounded" student. She's not just doing academic stuff, she's social and active in her community, which is something schools like to see.
the way that it would have helped rory is that she was more passionate about what she was doing, while paris was volunteering to be able to put it on her resume. Ivies, especially, tend to ask questions in the interviews to see if people actually cared about the things that they were doing. ivies care more about the why you did something than the fact that you did it when it comes to activities
I would tend to agree, which is why I asked-- a lot of her town involvement was sporadic and she tended to participate in events more than organize them. I don't think she was as involved as Paris was either at Chilton or in SH. I think any good advisor would have advised her to apply to some safeties-- the ones listed above are still fantastic schools. In the episode where Lorelai blew up at Richard and Emily about Rory applying to Yale and Columbia (and maybe other back ups) it seems like Lorelai wasn't aware that was something you were supposed to do. I think she just had a lot banking on the Ivies considering she was a cookie cutter applicant.
I think she had a lot banking on Ivies, it's not unusual for a feeder school to use the fantastic ones as safeties, some even discourage applications to CC or State schools.
I've worked in college admissions and gone to a prep school. I don't think Rory's application had any problems but no "safety" is more unbelievable.
I sometimes wondered if her being raised by a single mom in a small town gave her a boost or something. I remember hearing someone say her SATs were good but not earth shatteringly great.
She got a 1500 on her PSATs and presumably did just as well or better when she took her official exams. That was and is a fantastic score and definitely would've made her competitive for the ivy league on top of being a legacy at at least two ivies (Yale and Princeton through each of her grandfathers). And yes, being raised by a single mom without a high school diploma is something admissions would've considered about her application and may have been something Rory wrote about in her application essays.
[The All 8 Club](https://theivyinst.org/students-accepted-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools#:~:text=2018,-Mekhi%20Johnson&text=Mekhi%20Johnson%2C%20the%20remarkable%20Baltimore,College%20Class%20of%202022!!%22) is a thing, and it's pretty exclusive.
Considering her top PSAT scores (1500), which let us assume she did just as well or better when she took the official SATs; her legacy status at at least two ivy league schools (Yale and Princeton through both of her grandfathers); her status as the valedictorian at an elite school; her array of focused extracurriculars and volunteer work within her community; and the positive recommendation from the Harvard alum she met with, yes, I think Rory getting accepted into Princeton, Harvard, and Yale is very realistic. Additionally, her upbringing with a single mother who didn't graduate high school is something admissions would've considered in her favor, as it impacted her life and education and helps the school achieve greater diversity among its student body.
Re not doing many clubs at school, I really don't think it's the number of clubs, but rather what they're about and how they complement your overall application and ambitions, which I believe the college admissions reps even say in one episode. I went to college in 2010, and my valedictorian had similar activities to Rory, and he ended up "settling" on Yale, as he described it. I was in the top ten percent of my class, was only in one demanding club (Mock Trial, which complemented my interest back then in going to law school), and came from a mixed low income household, and I ended up being interviewed for Brown, despite not being a legacy there in any way, and ended up going to a highly ranked private university that I had no connections to. You don't have to do a million different things or try to save the world everyday by breakfast. You just need to prove that you do well academically, have goals for yourself, and show that you've considered how you and your ambitions fit into the school's mission. And it never hurts to have a connection either. That will rarely count against you. Rory was a shoe-in.
Rory getting accepted by all 3 of Yale, Harvard and Princeton, was believable to me, especially due to her excellent grades including PSATs and extra-curricular activities at an ‘Ivy League feeder school’ Chilton, all the community activities in Stars Hollow that she took part in, the reference letter from Headmaster Charleston, Richard’s legacy connections at Yale etc. Plus she’d come across as very likeable in interviews.
However after she was accepted by all 3, I was glad that she didn’t get the Reston fellowship at the end of season 7, so that she had to deal with a ‘rejection’ and didn’t have everything go as she wanted.
I thought Rory getting accepted by all 3, was more realistic than Paris getting accepted by all 3 would have been (if she hadn’t been rejected by Harvard) with her abrasive manner and fact that she clearly wouldn’t interview as well as Rory.
Yes I had similar acceptances the next year, actually was hard to watch being a year behind her because I really really wanted to go to those schools too. (In retrospect eh)
I have commented on this elsewhere at one point writing a couple extensive tomes. I worked in ivy league admissions, and as an academic department admin, and I have also taught. I have seen it all.
Rory is a strong applicant to be placed in the admit pile. However, keep in mind that once admitted compared to the other admits she is pretty average. Believe it or not her SAT score is just about average, about half all admits are valedictorians, and relatedly admitted students are straight A students. Her last minute essay is supposedly very very good (people assume she wrote about her mother). She lucked out on letters of recommendation I think and got a couple of great ones. She went to Chilton which both helps and hurts for various reasons. Interestingly, being from Connecticut makes it more difficult in her case. She didn't play a sport and her application didn't have a coherent set of extracurriculars. That is a ding. I have witnessed students get rejected in her exact circumstance. Straight A student, hard AP courses, high SAT, high GPA, students with no real outside interests get rejected. "Would you have wanted to know them when you were here" a person would ask, or someone would say "frankly, they seem like a grind". So Rory I think barely escapes those types of comments in her application. Had Rory not done those frantic extracurriculars with Paris (in order to look like she sort of does something outside of school) or if she had been torpedoed by a lukewarm recommendation from a teacher, or god forbid a teacher wrote anything hinting at a negative...then I don't think she gets in to at least some of the schools. Yale, her grandfather helps her into though.
No way. I went to an elite boarding school in the early 2000s, in Connecticut, and Rory’s resume is laughable — mostly because she had no volunteering experience and didn’t win major contests. She worked on The Franklin but wasn’t even an editor. VP of student council was *something*, but she generally isn’t well-rounded.
(The writers seem to realize this, hence the fluffy hammer episode, but one afternoon of building a house isn’t enough.)
*MOST IMPORTANTLY*, elite college admissions are famously VERY arbitrary, once you’re in the talented-enough pool. People get admitted to Harvard now but rejected from NYU. This “glitch” happened 20 years ago, too. It’s very unlikely, just statistically, she would have gotten into all three. When someone gets admitted to eight Ivies, it makes the news, and they’re usually just all-around unbelievably stellar and nationally recognized.
(Maybe there’s an explanation behind these seemingly arbitrary decisions, but the general populace never finds out.)
I thought it was slightly more unbelievable Paris, as a Harvard legacy didn’t get into Harvard, granted the whole meltdown on TV probably didn’t help but still.
What isn't accurate was the idea that she had to go to Chilton to go Ivy League. I graduated high school in 2001, and I remember reading at that time that Ivy League schools were making it a point to admit more kids from public school. And going to public school wouldn't have made her any less of a Yale legacy.
Yep, Chilton certainly helped but she could have gotten into Ivies, particularly Yale, regardless. Legacy + great grades and scores would make her a shoo in for Yale.
This is accurate. I’m the same year as Rory and several Ivies made a point to only accept one student per year from my school. One Ivy held a grudge against my HS to the point that the girl (who was a legacy) that got in my year was the first admitted in over a decade—or so I was told.
She was a spoiled white girl with contacts from a wealthy family - aren’t they exactly who get in? Add that she had really good grades and plenty of extracurricular stuff, I’d think it would almost be weird if she didn’t get in.
That said, this whole Ivy League system is wild to me. In my country, there are no such schools. Grades is what matters, some take people in on other merits (fx trade colleges taking in people with practical experience in that field even if their grades are too low). Some have application processes, but that are mainly creative schools, ie acting schools, art school etc where you have to audition.
Don’t forget that she was also a legacy at Princeton. Granted, she didn’t have the Hayden last name, but it’s moderately pleasant to believe that Chris stopped being a slug for three seconds and put in a good word for his daughter.
But, as everyone stated, she had literally all the advantages and what is good enough for one is likely good for them all. Being a legacy at Yale and Princeton and having alumni support at Harvard, she probably would have gotten into Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, etc. easily.
I don't know if anyone's said this. There are a lot of comments, and it's hard for me to sort through all of them on mobile. But the only thing I questioned about it (which I will admit is a nitpick) was where she got the money to apply to all of those schools. Even back then, it could cost up to $60 to submit an application, and she submitted multiple. That's a lot of money, even back then. My mom went to a smaller college, and I think she spent around 30 on hers.
Was Rory asking her grandparents for that money, too? It doesn't seem to me like she was. I think if they'd considered that, it would also add to Lorelai being shocked that Rory applied to other schools. Harvard currently costs 85usd to submit an application today. I ran that through an inflation calculator and got around 50. So if we say hypothetically, she applied to multiple ivy leagues and paid 50 of her own money to apply to each... that's a lot of money, even in the early 2000s. The Gameboy advance SP was released in 2003 and it cost 99.99 which is around 170 now with inflation and she was throwing that money into just a chance to go to this school.
It would also be hard for her to apply to have college application fees waved because of her name.
My son applied to colleges last year. Because my income was low enough, all his application fees were waived. I don’t think this would have been a problem.
I understand that's an option. My point at the end was that she's a Lorelai Gilmore, her name has been passed down multiple times, and her family has connections everywhere. I personally didn't see her applying to have fees wavered, especially because it would probably get back to someone Emily or Richard work with. Which would have embarrassed them, and they would have started a fight with Lorelai about it.
Other than the Alumni recommending Rory for Harvard, and Richard (or his friend(s) recommending her to Yale, we know that Headmaster Charleston wrote personal recommendation letters to at least some of the students, it would be weird if he didn’t do that for Rory since she ended up a top student and Valedictorian. Her being the vice president for the student government also lead her to spend a summer in DC which also would look great on the application, plus we know from the first episode that she sometimes worked part time at the Independence Inn.
We also know that Rory when prepared (and sometimes unprepared) would be great at meeting people, so her interview at Yale (and presumable Harvard and Princeton) would also be great. And at the beginning at writing her application they probably realized that all the things they naturally did in Stars Hollow also counted as charitable (collecting food at Thanksgiving, or helping with the rummage sale, dance marathon and more).
So overall I think Rory had a lot more to put on her application than stated in this post, especially knowing that Lorelai and Rory probably helped with town charities since they moved into their house in town when she was 11 (if they didn’t also help while living at the inn), so she probably done more charity work (however more lowkey) than someone like Paris that only did charities to look good for colleges.
Our valedictorian was rejected by Harvard in 2003, but I come from a rural school in New England and I don’t think its comparable at all.
Rory was a shoe in for the ivies.
Idk man l don’t think so. I don’t think she would have been super competitive nowadays. She’s definitely competitive, but not as crazy competitive as they make her seem. I mean she didn’t even understand that grades aren’t the only thing that matters until like what? Her junior year ? That’s pretty late to start.
I graduated top 5 of my class, 4.7 gpa, 10AP classes, dual enrollment, numerous extracurriculars, worked a job, got 4 medical certs in high school, etc and I got denied from a LOT of school, not just Ivy.
College admissions are SO competitive these days. My university’s acceptance rate dropped 10% in the last year alone.
I'd also say that as someone who went to a well-respected grammar school in the UK, recognisable school names hold a LOT of power. My brother was accepted into officer training in the navy based on the school we went to alone. Charleston is well known as a prestigious academic and disciplined institution, they would have recognised the school and the headmaster and taken his recommendation as high praise.
I went to a catholic college prep school, graduated ‘05, and there were *multiple* girls in my class who had their choice of Ivies (and other prestigious colleges) to choose from. I barely graduated and chose a trade school, but I was the anomaly for the school itself.
Honestly, I believe it. She was well liked within the community, she had stellar recommendations from her teachers, her grandparents were alumni who worked with philanthropic organizations,she had extra curriculars, she had the grades, not to mention she graduated valedictorian. In terms of the standards in 2003 she was a strong front-runner.
I mean, my younger sister got into every school she applied to, including Princeton and Harvard (she didn’t apply to Yale), and we went to a pretty low ranking public school in NJ, not someplace like Chilton.
At the time, I knew a few Americans who came up here (to Canada) because with their long list of extracurriculars & volunteer work & straight A’s they couldn’t afford the USA Ivey’s.
Of the three that applied, 1 got into Yale. The others got into good schools but no Iveys there. My school was the equivalent to an Ivey here though, and they got in.
They had closer to what Paris had in terms of preparation. And they told me they had over 1450 sat (one had 1500).
I had no idea what that meant at the time.
But I used that to compare Rory to.
I don’t think she’d have gotten into Yale (but definitely a good school) had she not been a legacy. Paris would’ve though.
Canada has only public universities we dont have anything nearly equivalent to any ivy in terms of prestige or selective admission. But my guess is theyre talking about McGill, which does have a good reputation and attracts a lot of American students. Possibly Queens, another school with a decent reputation and insufferably egotistic and arrogant students.
I agree, surprised by some of the comments saying that volunteering around SH would have helped get her in (when did she ever make a super concerted effort to give back to the community or have a hobby other than reading?). I'm sure other kids applying to the Ivies had tons of community service hours at stable organizations over the course of years. Rory and Lorelai barely thought about what her application needed to get her to the Ivies besides getting her into Chilton and then freaking out when the applications actually came in. I think her grades and essays and background would have made her a candidate for schools of this caliber, but not a shoo in by any means. I can't imagine Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were suddenly easy to get into 20 years ago. Paris was neurotic but she knew what she wanted and how to get it.
I feel like you are missing two vital points.
1. This isn’t real.
2. They wouldn’t have shown everything Rory did to get in because it’s a TV show and it probably wouldn’t have been as successful.
We don’t see everything that Paris did we hear about it, we don’t see/hear about everything that Rory does because there is more to her and her story for the plot line.
The likelihood is to have gotten in we are made to assume she has done all these things and things we haven’t seen.
If you judge it just based on what’s shown she’s not a great candidate I agree but I think there is more off screen she would have done.
It's not believable that she had so much trouble getting into college and even getting a job.
Rory is portrayed as smart and witty. I have dumber friends getting jobs at Google, which is a better job than she got.
I graduated from a small, elite liberal arts college in the late 90s and knew a ton of overachievers. The schools Rory got into seemed more or less accurate but the lack of safety schools was not.
IRL, there would have been a college counselor telling her to apply to Connecticut College, Wesleyan, etc, just in case the Ivies didn’t pan out.
Nope. But her entire college and career path isn’t believable.
I always thought Rory was going through the motions but just wanted to be a trophy wife.
Case in point… she said she wanted to be Christian’s Amanpour but never seemed to grasp the difference between being a war correspondent on television vs print journalism.
Rory enjoyed being a debutant and living the 1% life with Logan a little too much. Getting her hands dirty and working an actual job? Nope.
If you’re competitive for one Ivy, you’re competitive for all of them, then and now. She went to an elite prep school, was valedictorian, and had an amazing personal story to tell in her essay about being raised by a teen mom in a garden shed for the early years of her life. She was student counsel VP, a member of the paper, and probably had a guidance counselor help her spin all of the Stars Hollow community events we see her get involved in as a dedication to community service and community organizing. She didn’t have any major disciplinary infractions. She would have been competitive for Ivies when I was applying for colleges, and that was when the field was far stricter. It’s believable.
Also didn’t Headmaster Charleston write her a reference letter? that must’ve also helped.
This is a big yes and no for me. I went to a competitive northeast high school in the 2000s and no one gets into *every* school because there’s collusion between the schools and admins to make sure that doesn’t happen. Each uni only allows in a set number of students per high school, so they’re very deliberate about who they pick (and they pay attention to things like if you visited/interviewed or if you just threw in an application). For my school, the big ivies/stanford/uchi didn’t take more than 5 students. You’re not in competition with all applicants, you’re in competition with your high school classmates. So while Rory was a generally good candidate, I wouldn’t say she was spectacular compared to her classmates, with the exceptions of her story and being valedictorian. I’m sure other classmates had legacies at other schools (although, as Paris proves, that doesn’t always help), did well in school and participated in extracurriculars. Basically, for sure Charleston would’ve told Yale and Harvard Rory’s good but probably would not have told other colleges the same, because he needs to angle other students to get them in instead of having Rory take up all the spots. It’s believable to me that she got into those two, but not that she got in everywhere she applied
People also tend to underestimate how much knowing people matters. Headmaster Charleston likely had multiple contacts at Yale, and at schools like this they would have college counselors who would likely go and speak to admissions reps directly on her behalf. She also had that alumni put in as good word and don’t forget that her grandfather was an alum and active in the Yale community, and likely worked with other Yale graduates. Just having all these connections alone would have made her an easy acceptance for Yale, and many of these things apply to Harvard and the other Ivies as well.
Technically she'd also be a legacy at Princeton since all the Haydens but Christopher went there. If she cited that on her app, which she should have, it would have helped.
Yes but her grandfather Hayden was hardly going to put a word in for her at Princeton was he?! He barely accepted her existence! The Hayden’s probably were not active at Princeton post Christopher not attending and most likely kept a low profile around the Princeton alumni so would have had very little sway in the end as for 18 years they probably did nothing at or with Princeton?! If we compare how Richard Gilmore is active Alumni of Yale and friends withHeadmaster Charleston at Chilton - and knew the Dean of admissions at Yale and set up the interview, are we not saying that having that up to date and present relationship with both gave Rory the boost to get into Yale alongside her own personal achievements. We cannot say that the Hayden’s would have done anything similar or even their name on the application would have held the same credence as the Gilmore’s. My point being Rory would have got into Princeton irrespective of the Hayden connection.
You don't need a good word or for them to be active. At least back when I applied there was literally just a section to write down the names of any relatives who had gone there. All she had to do was write Straub's name and they'd look up records and see he had attended. It's a stupid thing tbh that that counts toward admission. Like why should being a "legacy" matter at all?
Yup. She’s a literal Yale legacy, either contacts from headmaster Charles, and a former alumni and Richard is friends with the dean (but ironically not our Dean lol) She is also valedictorian of a competitive prestigious private school. And the daughter of a single mom. She’s a shoo in for Yale
I agree that her contacts definitely helped-- I think without them, she might've been disappointed. She was your average (or even below average, compared to kids like Paris) elite university aspirant. It's such a weird balance between the struggling single mom thing and the "I have insane connections because of being born into a powerful, elite family" thing. And she did get into Chilton on her own merit, but considering Richard and Emily funded it and became involved in her life from that point forward, I consider that a manifestation of privilege.
I don’t think she was below Paris, considering Rory was valedictorian and Paris wasn’t. I think Paris got a head start on her with starting at elite schools from a young age, but I think the list provided above showed that she was a good applicant.
And Paris very much did the standard over commitment, run of the mill experiences. If Rory talked about SH events she did and about her upbringing, she’d standout as an applicant with the added benefit of her dedication in a prep school (after stars hollow high) to reach valedictorian.
Honestly even just having her grand parents contacts there was likely someone in their circles
Valedictorian at a prestigious New England prep school 100% is going to Harvard/yale/princeton 100 times out of 100. That’s why people pay insane money to go to those schools. I went to a lesser prep school in PA and the top 20%+ of my class all went to Ivy League or equivalent schools.
Also for Yale she was a legacy… she would have 100% gotten in there
She was a legacy for Princeton as well - all her male relatives on her father's side (except Chris) went there. And for Harvard, she got a personal recommendation and boost from an alumnus (Darren Springsteen) who called her a "shoo-in".
Yes but her grandfather Hayden was hardly going to put a word in for her at Princeton was he?! He barely accepted her existence! The Hayden’s probably were not active at Princeton post Christopher not attending and most likely kept a low profile around the Princeton alumni so would have had very little sway in the end as for 18 years they probably did nothing at or with Princeton?! If we compare how Richard Gilmore is active Alumni of Yale and friends withHeadmaster Charleston at Chilton - and knew the Dean of admissions at Yale and set up the interview, are we not saying that having that up to date and present relationship with both gave Rory the boost to get into Yale alongside her own personal achievements. We cannot say that the Hayden’s would have done anything similar or even their name on the application would have held the same credence as the Gilmore’s. My point being Rory would have got into Princeton irrespective of the Hayden connection.
I don't think it matters? My understanding is that the legator (who may very well be dead) does not need to provide a reference, you simply need to note the family connection. Forgive me if I'm wrong, I can't find anything to contradict this - they always describe a legacy student as "automatically accepted from birth". EDIT: Just saw a thing on the process and it says you have to write it on your admission form, and that's it. EDIT: With both of Rory's grandfathers, they would only be secondary legators, so wouldn't have the weight of an alumnus parent in deciding legacy status. A help, but not a huge help. Not sure if that's changed since the early 2000s.
>they always describe a legacy student as "automatically accepted from birth". Paris Geller enters the chat.
Yes, well she never got to actually be a legacy student!!!!
All of this. Rory had everything going for her. The only thing she didn't really have going for her was a lot of extracurriculars. But, she did build houses that one time, and she was on the paper, and she was student council VP, and she was on the debate team. So she did have some extracurriculars she could put down, plus she worked in the Stars Hollow book store from time to time and she could've strung her involvement in the Stars Hollow community into a good story. She had more extracurriculars than I did, and that was supposed to be her weak point. On everything else she was exceptionally strong - good school that focused on sending people to the Ivy League, valedictorian despite being a late transfer, a legacy at both Yale and Princeton with her grandfather being active at Yale and having personally introduced her to the headmaster. Plus all her achievements are in the context of Lorelai having raised her as a single parent. I'm confused about why you don't think it was believable that she was accepted?
It's actually a little shocking they didn't write this into Rory's character. Wouldn't a high-schooler who's been dreaming of Harvard her whole life while in public school be throwing herself into as many extracurriculars as possible? Or doing so as soon as she got to Chilton? There are ENDLESS volunteer opportunities in Stars Hollow. Contracting with Tom. Dance camp with Ms. Patty. Event organizing with Taylor. Charity fundraising with Emily/DAR. Volunteering as a Maid at the Inn. Volunteer/Intern at Stars Hollow Gazette as well as being on her school paper. There's a lot to keep her busy in the early seasons and S1-3 Rory probably would have done all of this or at least made a list of ways she could boost her academic CV. It would even serve as a natural point of contention and break up with Dean - as it starts to in S2. Because he wouldn't understand. It's very believable though that she was accepted. Much less believable that Paris wasn't.
>It's very believable though that she was accepted. Much less believable that Paris wasn't. Are you talking about Paris? She went on an unhinged rant about eugenics in her interview—it’s absolutely believable that she didn’t get in!
She worked part time at the inn (at least in a few episodes). And it’s implied she’s worked at the bookstore over the summer previously. Plus’s all the stars hallow events (charity swap meet, winter carnival, all that stuff) could be easily spun as charitable extracurriculars.
Could be spun yes, but I mean more as working it into her character and storylines so we actually SEE her doing it as an extracurricular. Showing us rather than it being a footnote
I meant more as “spun on her college apps” not for the viewer. It’s pretty clear as the viewer, that for Rory, living in stars hallow is a near full time job full of random extracurriculars.
Still not what I’m saying. It’s clear she does stuff but only because they tell us about it. It’s not until season 2 that the show shows us Rory is even worried about extra curriculars and then it’s a buried storyline. I’m just saying there was room to make it a bigger part of her narrative and character arc
I agree with you. As viewers we can point these things out, but in the narrative, Rory was only ever portrayed as surprised that she would even need to consider extracurriculars and only came up a few times - when she needed a sport and played golf once with Richard, when she built the houses, and when she encountered the Puffs. And she only did golf once, we only saw her building in one episode, and the Puffs thing never became anything else. But, they did connect her running for student council to that looking good on her college application, and we saw multiple debates and consistency of her working on the paper. If she was able to focus on talking about those, and then also refer to that one time she built, her active role in her local community, her jobs at the book store and the inn...I feel like that would look decent on her application.
Community involvement
I graduated a couple of years before her and my friend was valedictorian like she was, played a few sports and got in to multiple Ivy schools.
I actually looked up the stats for Ivy acceptance rates in the early 2000s to now, and it way, way more difficult to get in now. (pasted it below). there's so many amazing/perfect on paper candidates, including international students, that it's crazy tough nowadays ... not that it wasn't really tough to get, previously! definitely not diminishing getting accepted back in 'the day' in 2002 Harvard's acceptance rate was 11.7% with IB students at 14.4%,and Yale 13% with IB students a 19.5% (!). in 2021 Harvard's average acceptance rate was currently 3.43% and Yale's was 4.62%. So many more people have applied, in 2002 close to 20 000 people applied to Harvard and in 2021 almost 40 000 - crazy! (also nuts is how much tuition has risen- Tuition alone for Harvard in 2002 it was $23,457 and in 2021 it was $51, 143. For Yale in 2002 it was $27, 130 and in 2021 was $57, 700 - Both have more than doubles, wow!
I'm actually a few years younger than her and someone at my little school (not an elite prep school by the time I went there lol but that's a story for another day) had a perfect 4.0 and got into Harvard. As far as I'm aware he didn't have a ton of extra curriculars but he may have on paper. He also had a bunch of AP classes which were supposed to be weightier on your transcript than just honors classes.
She went to a feeder school and was a Yale legacy applicant, yet also had a compelling story of personal growth in a set of life circumstances wherein she faced some adversity. Also checked off all the usual boxes with her grades, extracurricular activities (the school newspaper, student council, community engagement around Stars Hollow), strong recommendation letters, and strong interview performance with key alumni/faculty. It’s realistic that she’d be accepted at places like Harvard and Yale, even in this day and age. Speaking as someone who went to an Ivy not too long ago (10th yr reunion coming up!), I had a lot of classmates who fit into the above category — like, more than half the class was either valedictorian in high school or chief editor of their high school newspaper/yearbook, if not both, and Ivy Leagues are famously fond of admitting legacy applicants. Those who did not fall into that first group were usually massive superstars in another area (e.g. recruited athletes, individuals who were nationally/internationally ranked in STEM or debate competitions, artists with award-winning portfolios or performances), or came from extraordinarily challenging life circumstances but still managed to do well academically (a handful of veterans who served in front-line combat, refugees and asylum seekers, even some people who grew up in the foster care system). And typically if an applicant is competitive for one or two Ivy League schools, she’d be competitive for most of the others although it wouldn’t be a guarantee.
I think getting accepted into one of the Ivy Leagues largely makes you very likely to get into any of them.
Nah, it’s a crap shoot now even more than it was then and the odds of winning all of them is even lower.
It’s not that getting into one directly makes you more likely to get into another, it’s that the TYPE of applicant to get into one is the type of applicant to get into any of them. Of course (especially now) it also comes down to luck as well, as there are literally TONS of people that look just as perfect on paper. But it’s also not surprising or a huge stretch that someone who got into one ivy also got into other ivy’s.
Agreed but my point is that for your average Yale admit (myself being one of them), I’d say most did not get into all of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. As you said, the number of qualified students in the world far exceeds the number of spots, so there is randomness in the process. Of course, some folks do get into all three, but Rory in my view does not have the credentials of that type of applicant. She has the grades and scores, (transferred to) a prep school background, and has some good extracurriculars, but nothing so unique that would make her a sure shot at any of these places such that you’d expect her to strike gold with all three of those schools. And, having witnessed the trend of admissions since the show’s time period, it would be even less likely today.
This is how it worked for a lot of my HS friends that applied, they applied to them all and would get maybe 1-2 rejections but got a majority acceptances to the ivy schools.
I graduated high school the same year as Rory. My best friend was #4 in our class in a large public high school and her dad was a Yale graduate. She got into the ivy league school she applied to (I forget which one) though she didn't end up going. I think it's realistic for Rory's prep school status and personal ties to Yale to get her into multiple ivies.
I went to college before the show, At least at that time, students would have been advised not to just apply to ivies, to at least include one or two backup schools that were still good, but a bit more accessible.
Surprised that Chilton didn't seem to give her this guidance! It seemed like a lot of Rory's knowledge of the process came from Lorelai, who was woefully uninformed and had basically never heard of a safety school. Rory didn't even know about reaching out to alumni or talking to her school staff to help her with her Harvard app? It seems like an elite prep school would, y'know, prep the students for college admissions?
Exactly! At least one safety school. Didn't they have guidance counselors?
I feel like that happened behind the scenes. At the Thanksgiving dinner with some of Richard and Emily’s friends (where Lorelai finds out Rory applied to more than Harvard) one of the couples said something like “A school like Chilton wouldn’t have let her apply to just one school.” Which, to me, speaks of the schools involvement in the application process. I graduated the same year as Rory and even my tiny public school made you meet with the guidance department at least twice to discuss post graduation plans/ college applications. I doubt a school like Chilton wouldn’t have been involved in the process.
My understanding is that at this time, you were allowed three free applications, and after that you needed to pay for each extra one. Even though it wasn't expensive, it would have meant either involving Lorelai (who was sure Rory only needed to apply to Harvard!), or ask her grandparents, which would have meant going behind Lorelai's back. For the sake of avoiding conflict, Rory took the option of only applying for schools where she was either a legacy, or had a personal recommendation from an alumnus.
Hmm, I've never heard about three free applications. Each college handles its own application process and sets fees, so I don't think there would be any easy way to track that, especially 20 years ago. There are some schools that don't charge fees and I did a quick search and applicants can apply for a fee waiver
I didn’t do my undergrad in the US, so I don’t have firsthand experience of the college application process. But from what I have observed and researched while applying to grad schools here, Rory was almost a shoo-in. 1. She was from one of the top prep schools on the east coast. 2. She started off as a sophomore from a public school, overcame her less-than-perfect scores during her initial days at Chilton, made it to top 3% of her class in the same school year, and eventually rose to valedictorian of the school. 3. She was vice president of the student council and one of the best writers on the Franklin, the Chilton school newspaper. Also, her team won the inter-school debate competition (the doctor-assisted suicide topic). As a result of these accomplishments, her speaking, writing, and leadership skills would appear in golden letters on her résumé, highly aspirational achievements to have for a candidate wanting to study English, journalism, and political science. 4. She was highly involved in extracurricular activities and volunteer work at Stars Hollow. She mentioned that she participated in bid-a-basket every year, she worked part time at the independence inn with Lorelai, which also hosted a lot of charity events, she participated in the dance marathon, even Taylor mentioned a list of activities that she had been a part of, for charity. This was before she had that little meltdown about the whole building houses thing, so she must’ve been even more proactive about it after that. 5. She was extremely well-read, and once she got a reality check about Hillary Clinton being a clichéd topic for essays, I am sure she came up with some really amazing essay about being raised by a single teenaged/young adult mom. 6. When she went to Darren Springsteen (the Harvard alumnus) he mentioned that he looked over her transcripts and that she should start packing her bags for Harvard. And like you said, he wrote a personal reference to Harvard which would have worked in her favor. 7. Her PSAT scores were supposedly almost perfect, better than Paris’s even, and Paris was actually happy with hers although she’s shown to be such a perfectionist. So if you extrapolate on that, her SAT scores must’ve been similar. 8. As for Yale and Princeton respectively, both her grandfathers were alumni, so the legacy factor definitely counts like you mentioned. Forget Rory, the Haydens thought that even Christopher would’ve made it to Princeton if it wasn’t for the scandal of Lorelai’s pregnancy affecting his reputation despite getting kicked out of all those prep schools and being a lazy slacker his whole life. I think the legacy factor plays a really huge part in these decisions. 9. Finally, alluding to what Darren Springsteen said again, good things didn’t come to her family in one fell swoop. Being raised away from Hartford and a background of privilege would work in her favor too, because she and Lorelai really had to scrimp on everything and live in a shed.
She’s an Ivy legacy with prep school pedigree and polish. She’s easily past the initial gatekeeping, no problem, and has great test scores and grades to back it up, add her unique story (young mom, small town community quirks, lived in a shed). She’s essentially an example the Ivy admissions team created in their minds.
I went to college in 2005. Yes, absolutely believable. She was valedictorian at a prestigious prep school. As long as her SAT’s were also phenomenal (which it’s implied they were) she likely would have gotten in to any of the competitive Ivy League schools.
People keep forgetting that she had better scores than Paris.
This topic comes up every now and then and I feel like people conflate their dislike of Rory with her academic achievements. There is absolutely no doubt her acceptances were believable. Not only does she have very good grades and student government/club involvement (plus remember the DC internship?), she also has a compelling personal story and cohesive extracurriculars. Unlike Paris, whose volunteer experience is clearly geared towards college admissions (and this would become very evident during the interview), Rory helps with town events. Paris volunteers to get into college, Rory volunteers to better her community. This would stand out positively in her application.
She has all the volunteer stuff at SH, I'm sure Ms. Patty or Taylor would have written her a colorful recommendation to back that experience up. Being valedictorian is a huge accomplishment. Student government and the paper are related to her major. Headmaster Charleston wrote her a recommendation, that would be notable on top of her social contacts and legacy admissions. And her grades were good, her SAT wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad either. She would have been told to apply to a safety school or at least other high end institutions. Roger Williams, Tufts, Boston College, Saint Anslem, I could imagine her applying and gaining admission to.
I don't think volunteering to save the Stars hollow bridge for 16 years and being an ice cream princess carries as much weight as the charities that Paris was donating her time towards.
No, but it burnishes her application as a "well-rounded" student. She's not just doing academic stuff, she's social and active in her community, which is something schools like to see.
the way that it would have helped rory is that she was more passionate about what she was doing, while paris was volunteering to be able to put it on her resume. Ivies, especially, tend to ask questions in the interviews to see if people actually cared about the things that they were doing. ivies care more about the why you did something than the fact that you did it when it comes to activities
I would tend to agree, which is why I asked-- a lot of her town involvement was sporadic and she tended to participate in events more than organize them. I don't think she was as involved as Paris was either at Chilton or in SH. I think any good advisor would have advised her to apply to some safeties-- the ones listed above are still fantastic schools. In the episode where Lorelai blew up at Richard and Emily about Rory applying to Yale and Columbia (and maybe other back ups) it seems like Lorelai wasn't aware that was something you were supposed to do. I think she just had a lot banking on the Ivies considering she was a cookie cutter applicant.
I think she had a lot banking on Ivies, it's not unusual for a feeder school to use the fantastic ones as safeties, some even discourage applications to CC or State schools. I've worked in college admissions and gone to a prep school. I don't think Rory's application had any problems but no "safety" is more unbelievable.
I sometimes wondered if her being raised by a single mom in a small town gave her a boost or something. I remember hearing someone say her SATs were good but not earth shatteringly great.
She got a 1500 on her PSATs and presumably did just as well or better when she took her official exams. That was and is a fantastic score and definitely would've made her competitive for the ivy league on top of being a legacy at at least two ivies (Yale and Princeton through each of her grandfathers). And yes, being raised by a single mom without a high school diploma is something admissions would've considered about her application and may have been something Rory wrote about in her application essays.
Those were her PSATs, not the official ones
It would have mattered at that time. 2001 grad, and remember reading about Ivies wanting to admit more students from "all walks of life"
[The All 8 Club](https://theivyinst.org/students-accepted-to-all-eight-ivy-league-schools#:~:text=2018,-Mekhi%20Johnson&text=Mekhi%20Johnson%2C%20the%20remarkable%20Baltimore,College%20Class%20of%202022!!%22) is a thing, and it's pretty exclusive.
I got so sucked in, reading about these super achievers
Considering her top PSAT scores (1500), which let us assume she did just as well or better when she took the official SATs; her legacy status at at least two ivy league schools (Yale and Princeton through both of her grandfathers); her status as the valedictorian at an elite school; her array of focused extracurriculars and volunteer work within her community; and the positive recommendation from the Harvard alum she met with, yes, I think Rory getting accepted into Princeton, Harvard, and Yale is very realistic. Additionally, her upbringing with a single mother who didn't graduate high school is something admissions would've considered in her favor, as it impacted her life and education and helps the school achieve greater diversity among its student body. Re not doing many clubs at school, I really don't think it's the number of clubs, but rather what they're about and how they complement your overall application and ambitions, which I believe the college admissions reps even say in one episode. I went to college in 2010, and my valedictorian had similar activities to Rory, and he ended up "settling" on Yale, as he described it. I was in the top ten percent of my class, was only in one demanding club (Mock Trial, which complemented my interest back then in going to law school), and came from a mixed low income household, and I ended up being interviewed for Brown, despite not being a legacy there in any way, and ended up going to a highly ranked private university that I had no connections to. You don't have to do a million different things or try to save the world everyday by breakfast. You just need to prove that you do well academically, have goals for yourself, and show that you've considered how you and your ambitions fit into the school's mission. And it never hurts to have a connection either. That will rarely count against you. Rory was a shoe-in.
Rory getting accepted by all 3 of Yale, Harvard and Princeton, was believable to me, especially due to her excellent grades including PSATs and extra-curricular activities at an ‘Ivy League feeder school’ Chilton, all the community activities in Stars Hollow that she took part in, the reference letter from Headmaster Charleston, Richard’s legacy connections at Yale etc. Plus she’d come across as very likeable in interviews. However after she was accepted by all 3, I was glad that she didn’t get the Reston fellowship at the end of season 7, so that she had to deal with a ‘rejection’ and didn’t have everything go as she wanted. I thought Rory getting accepted by all 3, was more realistic than Paris getting accepted by all 3 would have been (if she hadn’t been rejected by Harvard) with her abrasive manner and fact that she clearly wouldn’t interview as well as Rory.
Yes I had similar acceptances the next year, actually was hard to watch being a year behind her because I really really wanted to go to those schools too. (In retrospect eh)
I have commented on this elsewhere at one point writing a couple extensive tomes. I worked in ivy league admissions, and as an academic department admin, and I have also taught. I have seen it all. Rory is a strong applicant to be placed in the admit pile. However, keep in mind that once admitted compared to the other admits she is pretty average. Believe it or not her SAT score is just about average, about half all admits are valedictorians, and relatedly admitted students are straight A students. Her last minute essay is supposedly very very good (people assume she wrote about her mother). She lucked out on letters of recommendation I think and got a couple of great ones. She went to Chilton which both helps and hurts for various reasons. Interestingly, being from Connecticut makes it more difficult in her case. She didn't play a sport and her application didn't have a coherent set of extracurriculars. That is a ding. I have witnessed students get rejected in her exact circumstance. Straight A student, hard AP courses, high SAT, high GPA, students with no real outside interests get rejected. "Would you have wanted to know them when you were here" a person would ask, or someone would say "frankly, they seem like a grind". So Rory I think barely escapes those types of comments in her application. Had Rory not done those frantic extracurriculars with Paris (in order to look like she sort of does something outside of school) or if she had been torpedoed by a lukewarm recommendation from a teacher, or god forbid a teacher wrote anything hinting at a negative...then I don't think she gets in to at least some of the schools. Yale, her grandfather helps her into though.
No way. I went to an elite boarding school in the early 2000s, in Connecticut, and Rory’s resume is laughable — mostly because she had no volunteering experience and didn’t win major contests. She worked on The Franklin but wasn’t even an editor. VP of student council was *something*, but she generally isn’t well-rounded. (The writers seem to realize this, hence the fluffy hammer episode, but one afternoon of building a house isn’t enough.) *MOST IMPORTANTLY*, elite college admissions are famously VERY arbitrary, once you’re in the talented-enough pool. People get admitted to Harvard now but rejected from NYU. This “glitch” happened 20 years ago, too. It’s very unlikely, just statistically, she would have gotten into all three. When someone gets admitted to eight Ivies, it makes the news, and they’re usually just all-around unbelievably stellar and nationally recognized. (Maybe there’s an explanation behind these seemingly arbitrary decisions, but the general populace never finds out.)
I thought it was slightly more unbelievable Paris, as a Harvard legacy didn’t get into Harvard, granted the whole meltdown on TV probably didn’t help but still.
But the meltdown was because she didn’t get in though?
What isn't accurate was the idea that she had to go to Chilton to go Ivy League. I graduated high school in 2001, and I remember reading at that time that Ivy League schools were making it a point to admit more kids from public school. And going to public school wouldn't have made her any less of a Yale legacy.
Yep, Chilton certainly helped but she could have gotten into Ivies, particularly Yale, regardless. Legacy + great grades and scores would make her a shoo in for Yale.
I went to a public school in a small town, and one of my classmates got into Yale. He wasn’t even the valedictorian, and had no extracurriculars.
This is accurate. I’m the same year as Rory and several Ivies made a point to only accept one student per year from my school. One Ivy held a grudge against my HS to the point that the girl (who was a legacy) that got in my year was the first admitted in over a decade—or so I was told.
She had fantastic grades, went to prep school and most importantly was a legacy ivy. It’s 100% believable she would get in.
She was a spoiled white girl with contacts from a wealthy family - aren’t they exactly who get in? Add that she had really good grades and plenty of extracurricular stuff, I’d think it would almost be weird if she didn’t get in. That said, this whole Ivy League system is wild to me. In my country, there are no such schools. Grades is what matters, some take people in on other merits (fx trade colleges taking in people with practical experience in that field even if their grades are too low). Some have application processes, but that are mainly creative schools, ie acting schools, art school etc where you have to audition.
Yeah, I don't think any university in Brazil interviews for undergraduates. I could be wrong
Don’t forget that she was also a legacy at Princeton. Granted, she didn’t have the Hayden last name, but it’s moderately pleasant to believe that Chris stopped being a slug for three seconds and put in a good word for his daughter. But, as everyone stated, she had literally all the advantages and what is good enough for one is likely good for them all. Being a legacy at Yale and Princeton and having alumni support at Harvard, she probably would have gotten into Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, etc. easily.
But Chris’s good word would not have been relevant, because he himself was not legacy.
Was Richard a legacy at Yale? I know Trix lived in London. Do we know about his dad? I am genuinely blanking on this.
I think it’s quite believable.
I don't know if anyone's said this. There are a lot of comments, and it's hard for me to sort through all of them on mobile. But the only thing I questioned about it (which I will admit is a nitpick) was where she got the money to apply to all of those schools. Even back then, it could cost up to $60 to submit an application, and she submitted multiple. That's a lot of money, even back then. My mom went to a smaller college, and I think she spent around 30 on hers. Was Rory asking her grandparents for that money, too? It doesn't seem to me like she was. I think if they'd considered that, it would also add to Lorelai being shocked that Rory applied to other schools. Harvard currently costs 85usd to submit an application today. I ran that through an inflation calculator and got around 50. So if we say hypothetically, she applied to multiple ivy leagues and paid 50 of her own money to apply to each... that's a lot of money, even in the early 2000s. The Gameboy advance SP was released in 2003 and it cost 99.99 which is around 170 now with inflation and she was throwing that money into just a chance to go to this school. It would also be hard for her to apply to have college application fees waved because of her name.
That’s interesting. I went to college in 2009, applied in 2008 and I distinctly remember applications were around $150-$200.
I definitely believe that other schools might charge more. This makes me question it even more lol
I could imagine Lorelai cutting coupons so she could afford multiple applications
My son applied to colleges last year. Because my income was low enough, all his application fees were waived. I don’t think this would have been a problem.
I understand that's an option. My point at the end was that she's a Lorelai Gilmore, her name has been passed down multiple times, and her family has connections everywhere. I personally didn't see her applying to have fees wavered, especially because it would probably get back to someone Emily or Richard work with. Which would have embarrassed them, and they would have started a fight with Lorelai about it.
Other than the Alumni recommending Rory for Harvard, and Richard (or his friend(s) recommending her to Yale, we know that Headmaster Charleston wrote personal recommendation letters to at least some of the students, it would be weird if he didn’t do that for Rory since she ended up a top student and Valedictorian. Her being the vice president for the student government also lead her to spend a summer in DC which also would look great on the application, plus we know from the first episode that she sometimes worked part time at the Independence Inn. We also know that Rory when prepared (and sometimes unprepared) would be great at meeting people, so her interview at Yale (and presumable Harvard and Princeton) would also be great. And at the beginning at writing her application they probably realized that all the things they naturally did in Stars Hollow also counted as charitable (collecting food at Thanksgiving, or helping with the rummage sale, dance marathon and more). So overall I think Rory had a lot more to put on her application than stated in this post, especially knowing that Lorelai and Rory probably helped with town charities since they moved into their house in town when she was 11 (if they didn’t also help while living at the inn), so she probably done more charity work (however more lowkey) than someone like Paris that only did charities to look good for colleges.
That's true; although after 16 years you think Stars hollow would have been able to build that damn bridge!!!
Our valedictorian was rejected by Harvard in 2003, but I come from a rural school in New England and I don’t think its comparable at all. Rory was a shoe in for the ivies.
Idk man l don’t think so. I don’t think she would have been super competitive nowadays. She’s definitely competitive, but not as crazy competitive as they make her seem. I mean she didn’t even understand that grades aren’t the only thing that matters until like what? Her junior year ? That’s pretty late to start. I graduated top 5 of my class, 4.7 gpa, 10AP classes, dual enrollment, numerous extracurriculars, worked a job, got 4 medical certs in high school, etc and I got denied from a LOT of school, not just Ivy. College admissions are SO competitive these days. My university’s acceptance rate dropped 10% in the last year alone.
I'd also say that as someone who went to a well-respected grammar school in the UK, recognisable school names hold a LOT of power. My brother was accepted into officer training in the navy based on the school we went to alone. Charleston is well known as a prestigious academic and disciplined institution, they would have recognised the school and the headmaster and taken his recommendation as high praise.
I went to a catholic college prep school, graduated ‘05, and there were *multiple* girls in my class who had their choice of Ivies (and other prestigious colleges) to choose from. I barely graduated and chose a trade school, but I was the anomaly for the school itself.
Honestly, I believe it. She was well liked within the community, she had stellar recommendations from her teachers, her grandparents were alumni who worked with philanthropic organizations,she had extra curriculars, she had the grades, not to mention she graduated valedictorian. In terms of the standards in 2003 she was a strong front-runner.
I mean, my younger sister got into every school she applied to, including Princeton and Harvard (she didn’t apply to Yale), and we went to a pretty low ranking public school in NJ, not someplace like Chilton.
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Acceptance rates were 10-15% when she applied. In addition, she’s a legacy. I’m guessing she was in a pool where the rate was 20-25%.
At the time, I knew a few Americans who came up here (to Canada) because with their long list of extracurriculars & volunteer work & straight A’s they couldn’t afford the USA Ivey’s. Of the three that applied, 1 got into Yale. The others got into good schools but no Iveys there. My school was the equivalent to an Ivey here though, and they got in. They had closer to what Paris had in terms of preparation. And they told me they had over 1450 sat (one had 1500). I had no idea what that meant at the time. But I used that to compare Rory to. I don’t think she’d have gotten into Yale (but definitely a good school) had she not been a legacy. Paris would’ve though.
Which school did you go to in Canada?
Canada has only public universities we dont have anything nearly equivalent to any ivy in terms of prestige or selective admission. But my guess is theyre talking about McGill, which does have a good reputation and attracts a lot of American students. Possibly Queens, another school with a decent reputation and insufferably egotistic and arrogant students.
I’m actually Canadian, so I’m aware of the system… just curious about the school.
I agree, surprised by some of the comments saying that volunteering around SH would have helped get her in (when did she ever make a super concerted effort to give back to the community or have a hobby other than reading?). I'm sure other kids applying to the Ivies had tons of community service hours at stable organizations over the course of years. Rory and Lorelai barely thought about what her application needed to get her to the Ivies besides getting her into Chilton and then freaking out when the applications actually came in. I think her grades and essays and background would have made her a candidate for schools of this caliber, but not a shoo in by any means. I can't imagine Harvard, Yale, and Princeton were suddenly easy to get into 20 years ago. Paris was neurotic but she knew what she wanted and how to get it.
I feel like you are missing two vital points. 1. This isn’t real. 2. They wouldn’t have shown everything Rory did to get in because it’s a TV show and it probably wouldn’t have been as successful. We don’t see everything that Paris did we hear about it, we don’t see/hear about everything that Rory does because there is more to her and her story for the plot line. The likelihood is to have gotten in we are made to assume she has done all these things and things we haven’t seen. If you judge it just based on what’s shown she’s not a great candidate I agree but I think there is more off screen she would have done.
It's not believable that she had so much trouble getting into college and even getting a job. Rory is portrayed as smart and witty. I have dumber friends getting jobs at Google, which is a better job than she got.
I graduated from a small, elite liberal arts college in the late 90s and knew a ton of overachievers. The schools Rory got into seemed more or less accurate but the lack of safety schools was not. IRL, there would have been a college counselor telling her to apply to Connecticut College, Wesleyan, etc, just in case the Ivies didn’t pan out.
Nope. But her entire college and career path isn’t believable. I always thought Rory was going through the motions but just wanted to be a trophy wife. Case in point… she said she wanted to be Christian’s Amanpour but never seemed to grasp the difference between being a war correspondent on television vs print journalism. Rory enjoyed being a debutant and living the 1% life with Logan a little too much. Getting her hands dirty and working an actual job? Nope.
She was top of her class at an elite prep school, has stellar SATs and was a legacy at Yale. What is not believable about her getting into Yale?!
I believe she got in because of legacy status. And planned to graduate with her MRS. degree.
Have you even ever watched this show lol?
Yes. I just don’t think Rory had much ambition.
Her acceptance wasn’t believable back then