Brandeis

PARIS: You can go somewhere else. Go to Brandeis. Brandeis is nice.

Brandeis University is a private university in the city of Waltham, Massachussetts, just outside Boston. It was founded in 1948 as a secular, non-sectarian, co-educational university, sponsored by the Jewish community.

It has a strong focus on the liberal arts, and promotes tolerance on its campus. About half the student population is Jewish, and Jewish culture is strongly in evidence. It has a reputation (I don’t know how earned or how accurate) for being slightly quirky and accepting of social misfits.

It is amusing that Paris suggests Rory attend a Jewish-sponsored university near Boston while she strives to get into a Christian-sponsored university near Boston. Perhaps Brandeis is a “nice” (i.e. liberal, tolerant, accepting) school that others (staff at Chilton?) have suggested Paris might like to attend if she doesn’t get into Harvard, or even prefer to Harvard, (since she’s a Jewish social misfit), so she turns it back on someone else.

“Ten generations of Gellers”

PARIS: Ten generations of Gellers have gone to Harvard. I have to go to Harvard.

According to Paris, the Geller family have been attending Harvard University since the 18^th century. This doesn’t seem possible, as the Gellers are Jewish, and at that time Jews weren’t permitted to attend Harvard (and tended to be excluded from higher education, and many other institutions). The first Jewish student at Harvard in 1720 had to convert to Christianity, and still wasn’t really accepted. Even in the twentieth century, there were heavy restrictions on Jews attending Harvard.

It is possible that Paris is lying in a desperate attempt to persuade Rory that she “deserves” to go to Harvard more than Rory does. Of course later on Paris and Rory do attend the same university together.

College fair

The day after her birthday, Rory takes the bus into Hartford to attend a college fair. College fairs are events held by schools and communities where representatives of colleges and universities can meet one-on-one with high school students and their parents to talk about their college, and answer questions. Representatives will have a booth or table where they can hand out brochures about the campus and academic programs. It seems that for some time Rory has been collecting the brochures from Harvard University.

Hartford State

Lorelai tells Max that her business classes are at Hartford State [College], a fictional institution.

“She’s always wanted to go to Harvard”

LORELAI: I mean it’s an adjustment of course, but she’s always wanted to go to Harvard and this is how she’ll get there.
MAX: Harvard?
LORELAI: Yeah. Ever since she could crawl, I’ve really wanted her to go there.

As we have suspected ever since the Pilot, it was Lorelai’s idea for Rory to attend Harvard. Here she admits that she has been longing for Rory to go to Harvard since she was a baby.

SAT

MAX: I apologize for the behaviours of some of our guests tonight. It’s a tense time for some people.
LORELAI: The SAT season?
MAX: The waking hours.

The SAT Subject Tests are multiple-choice tests in various subjects given by the College Board, and taken to improve a student’s credentials for admission to universities in the United States. The SAT tests are generally held in early to mid-October.

SAT originally stood for Scholastic Aptitude Test, but by now it is just a brand name and not an acronym of anything in particular.

Advanced Placement

The Chilton parents are very concerned about whether the texts Mr. Medina has chosen will be covered in the Advanced Placement tests.

In the US and Canada, Advanced Placement (AP) is a program which offers college-level curricula and exmainations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course credit to those students who get high scores in the AP exams.

Mr. Medina says that the next AP test will be held in the following month (November), but in real life AP Tests are always held in May.

We learn from this that Rory is in the AP English Literature class to improve her chances of attending university. We don’t know what other AP classes she might be doing at Chilton, but any class that she has with Paris seems like a pretty safe bet.

Eight hours

Rory’s school day is 8 hours long, meaning that classes start at 8.05 am and end at 4.05 pm. This is at the upper end of school hours in Connecticut, although there are schools in Connecticut with even longer hours. The start and end times, no doubt coincidentally, are the same as the Classical Magnet School in Hartford.

Valedictorian

Paris’s stated ambition is to be the valedictorian when she graduates. In the United States and some other countries, the valedictorian is the student chosen to give the farewell address at the graduation ceremony. Often this is the student with the highest grade average, and as Paris is currently the top student in the class, she is on track to achieve her goal.

The curve

PARIS: Why are they letting all these extra people in? They just take up space and screw up the curve.

Some schools grade on a curve, meaning that the performance of the group overall is taken into accont when assigning grades. In its most extreme form, grades are assigned based on a student’s rank in class, placing students in direct competition with each other.

Chilton obviously grades on a curve, fostering a highly competitive environment. Paris is concerned that Rory joining the class, with her excellent academic results, may affect her own grades.