Harvard University

LORELAI: This is it. She can finally go to Harvard like she’s always wanted and get the education that I never got and get to do all the things that I never got to do and then I can resent her for it and we can finally have a normal mother-daughter relationship.

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachussets, and one of the most prestigious educational establishments in the world.

Being accepted into Chilton will help Rory get into Harvard, because Gilmore Girls implies that Chilton is a Harvard “feeder school” – one whose selective admissions process, academic culture, and strong college counselling will provide a clear advantage.

The real life “Harvard feeder schools” where a high proportion of students go on to Harvard are Boston Latin, Phillips Academy in Andover, Stuyvestant High School, Noble and Greenough School, Phillips Exeter Academy, Trinity School in New York, and Lexington High School.

This is the first time that we learn that Rory has “always wanted” to go to Harvard. The fact that Lorelai immediately says that Rory will get the education she never got and do all the things she never got to do suggests the source of Rory’s goal.

From the very first episode we begin to suspect that Rory’s role, in her mother’s eyes, is to fulfil all Lorelai’s hopes and dreams that ended when she gave birth to Rory, and to grow up to be the new, improved, child-free Lorelai.