Rory Gilmore in “Gilmore Girls” has made me rethink my decision of applying to Ivy Leagues since, “good” is not “good enough”. The show focuses on how Rory has this dream of going to Harvard University and the American dream of having a successful job that pays her well. The whole show idolizes how you have to be an overachiever to get into Harvard and even somebody like Paris Geller, (Rory’s friend in Chilton), might not be good enough for an Ivy League. This has me question the integrity of the application process because Rory had “drama” in Chilton (prep school that Rory went to).

Admissions and essays are the most anxiety fueled parts of the application process because it all depends on it, the whole application depends on the essay and if it’s not good you might as well not apply to college in the first place.. High Schoolers who decide to apply to Ivy League schools realize that their “over the top” extracurricular activities, sports, and community service hours aren’t good enough to be the “it” student. To get the “it” education you have to go out on a limb to impress Admission Officers, although they’ve seen it all. Materials ranging from class presidents, top of the class, business startup, president of a club, you name it. It’s still not “good enough” to impress Admission officers. However, the conflict is. How can we impress admission officers?

We see in the show that Rory works her butt off. I’m talking every single day studying, multiple clubs, class president, valedictorian, A+ student all the way. This is still not good enough according to her new school, Chilton located in Hartford, Connecticut. Even if you get into an Ivy League the costs of it are astronomical. It’s as if you have to sell a kidney, an eyeball, liver, and both of your ear drums to be able to afford half of the tuition cost per year. With that information Chilton was a prep school and Rory’s grandparents paid for it, for 4 years. 

A New York Times article has compared statistics from low income students and high income students to see who are more likely to apply to Ivy League schools. Low Income students who are likely to get accepted into top schools usually don’t because of financial debt. This shows how most students who have potential usually don’t even try because of debt, but Rory had opportunity after opportunity even when she got told that she would be a great “assistant” instead of Journalist she dropped out of Yale. She always had the option to change her life unlike others who were stuck being in the lower classes.

In “Gilmore Girls”, Rory’s mother (Lorelai Gilmore) realizes she can’t pay for Chilton since it’s an elite private school and very competitive amongst students in clubs & activities. So, she goes to her parents to ask for money, however some low income students don’t have rich grandparents to go to when they have an issue with money. I noticed this privilege going on in the show because Rory would complain about rich people but she didn’t realize that she was one of the wealthy. When Rory rushed to her grandparents house because her and her mom had an argument it made me think about how ungrateful she seemed at the moment because her mom was protecting her from making bad decisions. Same with when she moved in with her grandparents when she dropped out of Yale it makes you question her morals and compare at the beginning & end.  It has been previously noticed that legacy students have a priority when it comes to admissions because their parent(s) have gone there but how about students who aren’t a legacy? Well, they have a difficult time “blending” in with the other applicants. This conflicts the view of why? And why do people who already went or pay donations get privilege over others? 

    At the start I assumed, “Gilmore Girls” is a great portrayal of how students work for an achievement or a milestone in life. Rory Gilmore was an idol to many applying to schools because of her hard work and dedication throughout her high-school career. However, the actions of dropping out and then deciding to come back ruins the purpose of her being an “overachiever”. Rory didn’t realize how entitled she was because in her thoughts the idea of her being an innocent bystander overtook her perspective. Rory thinks that she’s misunderstood but she’s actually delusional since she had an advantage over everybody but didn’t use it to the best of her ability. This overviews how Rory had an advantage over others when applying to college because her grandparents donated to Yale on behalf of themselves and her. This has made me rethink applying to Ivy Leagues because the admission process is rigged and overrated since you have to be head over heels about the college to be enrolled and sometimes that’s not even good enough.