In the real world, nobody who wants to be a journalist (or has other ambitions) would turn down an internship with a professional paper (or any other company) and the chance of real credentials, real life work experience and maybe even the chance to write pieces after the internship or getting others through that internship and connections.
In saw many people getting a job through connections and yes they have to prove them even more and have to work harder (often), so that co-workers take them seriously, but if you are a hard worker and ambitious you can achieve that.
That she pretended to be the average folk and has to struggle was always an issue, because she never was, she had everything handed to her, but she doesn't´t realize it, bc Lorelai made her believe that when growing up. Lorelai always ranted about rich people and how bad they are, yet took money from them anyway and also enjoyed it and Rory is the same. She rants about that dude from the party in season 7 and I loved that Logan told her the truth.
Also, despite everyone praised Rory for being supersmart, I think she is average, but everyone told her how smart she is, because she read a lot and got straight A´s - Well, I think it is not that hard to get straight A´s, if you don´t work besides school or have a sports or other time consuming hobbies. She barely did anything else than study, yet struggled at Yale and in the internship.
I also think she choose a pretty easy major. For someone who is constantly reading, English literature is not that hard, however I think it is not the best major if you want to be a journalist. I mean there are Bachelor degrees for journalism, politics, business, foreign languages and other maybe with a double major in journalism - But of course, this would have been harder than studying English literature and re-reading tons of books you already read.*
* That does not mean English literature in general is an easy major, just for someone like Rory, who read tons of books even before high school.
Rory is not that hard of a worker and tended (past here, bc I havent´seen the new episodes and maybe that changed) to give up easily and broke down when she was criticized - That is not journalist material, as journalism is very competitive and you will be criticized by a lot of people during that.
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perfect_lover2012
8 years ago
Rory's more studious than intelligent for sure. She basically studied 24/7 growing up and didn't have any activities as you said in your post. One of my biggest gripes was that Rory just got pushed into everything. Paris had to tell her that she needed extracurriculars for Harvard but she supposedly knew everything about Harvard, she had an interest in the paper so I'll give her that, debates were always pushed by Paris, and so was the student council. Wouldn't someone so obsessed with Harvard know what they look for in applicants?
"When life gives you lemons"
Jessica D: sleep with their fathers and have secret lemon children
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barbarapaulmayer
8 years ago
Also true, everything extra thing she did was after Paris told her she had to, to have a shot getting into Ivy league.
But Rory herself had a tendency to make the bare minimum, for someone who says loves to travel and wants to become a foreign correspondent, you would think a semester abroad is definitely on the to do list and with money not being an issue, she could have definitely done that. But as this wasn´t mandatory in her major, she didn´t even consider it.
Rory was never proactive, taking the initiative or doing more than required - Yes, she was on the paper, but for someone wanting to be a journalist I´d say this is necessary and in Chilton Paris pointed that out to her (or made a comment about joining the paper, bc she wanted to be a journalist, before Rory even thought about this) - She also never did extra things back at Stars Hollow high - as headmaster Charleston pointed out.
I´d think if you go to public school and want to get into Ivy League University you would take every extra thing you can get, to show ambition, thrive, hard work. I mean she couldn´t be sure to get into Chilton and as money was somewhat of an issue to pay for Ivy league, I´d think you might also choose something that could get you a scholarship, such as sports, or extra academic classes.
I think Rory knowing about Harvard is the same with knowledge about Christiana Amanpour - If she´d read more than just surficial things or pieces of her, she w(c)ould have know that a journalism degree might make her life after University easier and maybe even double majoring would be better for her future career than just English Lit - I mean Christiana was her role model, and she even talked about working on the frontline for CNN a couple of times.
You´d think that someone with such ambitions would not scream like a little child, just because you mother threw a little onion bulb on you. - You would harden and maybe work on overcoming fears of insects, or nature or something - At least learn different languages that are not that common and might be useful in such situations, like frontline gulf war reporting. And also take a look at what your role model has studied to become that successful.
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kisdot
8 years ago
I agree that connections matter, but there is a big difference between getting an internship/job with nepotism or with being somebody's girlfriend. When you're born into wealth, status and a powerful family it's natural for others that you get ahead with your life using it to your advantage and your supervisors (who are there to give you feedback on your work) won't mess with you, because they know it can hurt their career or damage important connections.
When Emily confronted Shira? Huntzberger she said to Emily:
"there is your money and there is our money."
Mitchum wouldn't have dared to give an honest feedback to someone whom he considered his equal status-wise and could cause any unpleasantness in his business. Rory is considered privileged when you compare her to the average folk but when you compare her to the top 1% she's not. Mitchum knew that Rory didn't have the status to be a threat to his business and that being somebody's girlfriend is not a permanent, important status, in their world only marriage would have given her that status, like it did to Shira who was a waitress before marrying Mitchum.
In saw many people getting a job through connections and yes they have to prove them even more and have to work harder (often), so that co-workers take them seriously, but if you are a hard worker and ambitious you can achieve that.
That doesn't reflect my experience. It doesn't matter if your co-workers on your level take you seriously or not especially if you're an intern, what matters is that your supervisor/boss knows who you are because they're the ones who determine your position, not the ones you're on the same level.
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