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Episode Guide > Season 3, Episode 3

Gilmore Girls: Application Anxiety

 

Episode Score

 
9.0 Superb
246 votes

Your Score

Air Date

Tuesday October 8, 2002

Production Code

175003

Episode Summary

Rory's application for Harvard arrives, plunging Rory, Lorelai and Emily into a frenzy; a Chilton seminar on college applications only adds to Rory's anxiety and sends Paris into a tizzy; Taylor steamrollers Luke into opening a soda shop next to the diner; Lane places an ad in the paper for a band and finds a musical soulmate; Lorelai and Rory have dinner with a Harvard alumni and his family which may assure her chances of acceptance; Dean has a talk with Rory about their future after she goes to Harvard.

Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)
  •  
    8.3 Great

    Rory gets her application from Harvard, she begins to panic that she will not be good enough to get in! Elsewhere the town votes on creating a old style soda shop in Stars Hollow and Lane's search for a band to join becomes more realistic. hide show

    Great to see Lorelai and Lukes relationship is getting back on track, with them teasing him at the town meeting. Espicially as the dream sequence in the last episode was so unexpected! I loved the cameo from adam brody aswell, still unable to escape his seth cohen typecast! Deans bluntness when discussing Rory's move to college upset me slightly, he was ruining the dream that they would stay together through all this Jess/college drama! As Gilmore Girl's has only just started replaying on e4 in the UK, i am dying to find out what actually happens between these two. And from reading reviews of future (important) episodes i can tell the story will so get alot more confusing!

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  •  
    9.2 Superb

    Rory's Harvard application arrives leading her and Lorelai into a panic. Good episode. hide show

    This was good. Not as action packed as last weeks, but enjoyable. Rory's panic over the application was done well, as was both Emily and Lorelai's. My favourite part was probably when Lorelai had a meltdown at Rory about all the things Emily told her, even though minutes before Lorelai said these things wouldn't happen. The Chilton seminar was good to, Rory getting more worried as in was a good part.

    Paris having another of her meltdowns was funny, she can be crazy. The alumni dinner was very funny, but weird. It was amusing to see how Lorelai reacted to them, with the questions and things. Plus how they just didn't get her or her humour. The brother and sister were creepy but funny, as were the questions fired out at dinner.

    Good to see Rory feeling better about it, the bunny girl was a good character for the episode, helped Rory along. I thought Dean's talk with Rory about the future was 'blunt' just as Rory said, he put her on the spot, big style. Wonder how that will go. The end when Jackson got Lorelai thinking that Rory would be gone and out of her room next year, quite sad.

    Lane's ad thing was cool, good to see her character getting out there. Adam Brody as Dave appeared, interesting, a romance perhaps, I'm only guessing. the Luke thing was good to, with Taylor and the soda bar, his outbursts at the town meetings are also very entertaining. So this was a good episode

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  •  
    9.6 Superb

    The most appropriate title ever! hide show

    I've missed them, I've been busy to catch up the episodes but at least now I saw another one.
    Rory's application to Harvard is here!
    When Paris and her organize an seminar about collage and the applications, some of the guests answers freaked Rory. This seminar is Friday and she meets Lorelai at Emily's house. They go to Richard's office and they have an anxiety attack! That is really normal, Rory freaked out because all the things that she was going to put him the application were, according to the seminar guests, revealed lack of originality.

    Lorelai talks to principal Charleston and he gives her the number of a Harvard graduate. Lorelai and Rory go to lunch at his house and later he calls and says that her application is perfect.
    At the town meting, Taylor manages to get his way and create an old faction soda shop or something like that.

    And here comes the hard part, Rory is confronted by Dean. She will leave Stars Hollow to go to college and he wants to know what will happen, if they break up or not...
    And Jackson does the same thing with Lorelai even not knowing.
    She finally starts thinking about Rory leaving, her room being empty...

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  •  
    9.5 Superb

    A funny episode. hide show

    This was one of the best Gilmore Girls episodes I’ve seen. (But then again, I haven’t seen too many. :P) Lorelai was wonderful when she and Rory started freaking out over whether Rory would get into Harvard or not. I never knew some could say their lines so fast but be have the audience be able to understand what they were saying. It was nice that Rory found a Harvard graduate to help her ensure her Harvard acceptance. But his family was PSYHCO!!! Who has useless trivia quizzes during meals? When do they eat? By the time they would pick up a fork or something it would be their turn again. It was ridiculous! But thank goodness one child decided to lead her own life and break away from her crazy parents’ wishes. Poor Luke had to give up that space for the soda shop. He was so ticked. But that was a hilarious town meeting. Everyone kept focusing on the giant horse instead of the soda shop. Lol. Overall, it was a good episode.

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  •  
    10 Perfect

    Rory gets her harvard application and the gilmore girls have an anxiety attack. hide show

    i thought that this was a really funny that the gilmore girls freaked out about Rory finally get her application to Harvard. i thought that Rory would have been more calm about the arrival of her application i thought that it was really funny that she was freaking out about it coming. i thought that it was funny that she was going to do a pre fill her application on a sheet of paper before she acually filled it out. i though that rory and lorelai going to the harvard almuni's house where they meet a family that was very focused around education and getting into harvard. they seemed really nice evan though they really did not mention their other daughter that was not focused on school. i also thought that Rory and Paris was freaking out because they found out that the colleges did not want to read another application essay on Hilary Clinton.

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Episode Cast and Crew

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  • Darren leaves a message on the Gilmores' answering machine telling Rory that as far as he's concerned, she should pack her bags because she'll be admitted to Harvard. In reality, an alumni interviewer for an Ivy League school would never have the authority to make such a statement. No matter how highly an alumnus interviewer recommends a candidate to the admissions committee, the committee could always end up turning that candidate down because of the many equally qualified candidates who also apply. After all, the interviewer only speaks to a few candidates -- people on the admissions committee are the only ones who review all the candidates.

    Reply: I believe Darren wasn't guaranteeing her admission as an interviewer or an alumnus, but just saying that as an alumnus, and interviewer, he knows what the university is looking for, and thinks that she is extremely qualified. []
  • After Lorelai and Rory listen to Darren Springstein's message on the answering machine, they are standing discussing what they are going to do that day. The camera flips between Rory and Lorelai. In the first few shots of Lorelai, her hair is parted down the middle and flat against her head. In the last few shots of her, there is no visible part and her hair is poofed up a bit, softening her face. []
  • When Rory arrives at her grandparents' house and pulls Lorelai into the study to talk, she receives a phone call from Paris who wants to talk about the seminar. Paris told Rory she tried to throw the questioning over to Rory because when the panel commented about weeding out the hyper-intense, Paris felt it was directed toward her. Actually in the seminar, Paris tries giving Rory the floor before the weeding comment was made.
    Reply: Maybe the weeding comment came later, and Paris tried a second time to get Rory to take over with the questions. []
More Trivia
  • German episode title: "Collegefieber", meaning "College Fever".

    French episode title: "Candidature Pour Harvard", meaning "Harvard Application". []
  • Rory's Book List:
    Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol []
  • Edward Herrmann (Richard Gilmore) and Milo Ventimiglia (Jess Mariano) do not appear in this episode. []
More Notes
  • Darren: Do you know which French city famous for its water was the capital of collaborationist France?
    Lorelai: Oh, me? Um, Evian, Perrier, uh, Le Crystal Geyser?
    Darren: Jennifer, you wanna help Lorelai out?
    Jennifer: Vichy.
    Darren: That's correct.
    Lorelai: Oh, that's right. Vichy water, I knew that.
    Darren: What about the year of Germany's victory in the Franco-Prussian War?
    Lorelai: Huh, me again?
    Darren: If you wish.
    Lorelai: I don't know that one. I do know Istanbul is Constantinople, so if you've got a date in Constantinople, she'll be waiting in Istanbul.
    []
  • Lorelai: Well, let’s call him.
    Rory: Now?
    Lorelai: Yes, yes, there’s no time like the present, come on. His name is Darren Springsteen of Westport, Connecticut, Harvard class of '74. Uh! Ask if he has a brother named Bruce.
    Rory: I’m not gonna ask him that. (dials phone number) It’s ringing.
    Lorelai: Hee!
    (Rory hangs up the phone)
    Lorelai: Why’d you hang up?
    Rory: I’m not good at these things.
    Lorelai: Did he answer?
    Rory: Yes.
    Lorelai: Yes? Rory, that’s a really terrible first impression. (phone rings) Uh oh.
    Rory: Him?
    Lorelai: Maybe.
    Rory: He star sixty-nined us?
    Lorelai: Well, the Harvard people can afford all the latest technology. Answer!
    Lorelai: (on answering machine) Hey, you’ve reached Suffragette City, and if you’re calling about Lane Kim’s ad, sorry we’re not in, but don’t commit rock and roll suicide – just crank a message with some feedback.
    Rory: Oh geez.
    Lorelai: Well, if he is related to Bruce, he can dig it. []
  • Lorelai: (to Rory) Hey, maybe instead of going to college, you should drop out and I could quit my job and we could form an all girl band with Lane. You know like Banana-Rama. We could call it... Tangerine-A-Rama or Banana-Fana-Fofana-...Rama or something. []
More Quotes
  • Taylor: I am telling you Luke, if we don't quickly furnish these skateboarding Z-boys with a moral distraction they are going to turn Starshollow into Dogtown.

    Dogtown is an area in Santa Monica, California made famous by original skateboarding group known as the Z-boys. []
  • Rory: You're no Danny Gans.

    Danny Gans is a performer in Las Vegas who impersonates musicians. []
  • Rory: You went alphabetically.
    Lane: It seemed tidy.
    Lorelai: And a little OCD.

    OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. []
More Allusions
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