What Is True For The College Freshmen Of 2018?

Photo Credit:
THINKGlobalSchool

Each year at the start of the new school year Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts, events and people which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2022, represents those students primarily born in 2000. This year's class is unique for me on a personal level as my firstborn child is entering the University of Florida as a freshman this fall.

As you can see, this year's list highlights advances in technology, significant world events, and the many ways that today's college students experience the world differently from their parents.

You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

• They are the first class born in the new millennium, escaping the dreaded label of “Millennial,” though their new designation—iGen, GenZ, etc. — has not yet been agreed upon by them.
• Outer space has never been without human habitation.
• They have always been able to refer to Wikipedia.
• They have grown up afraid that a shooting could happen at their school, too.
• People loudly conversing with themselves in public are no longer thought to be talking to imaginary friends.
• Investigative specials examining the O.J. Simpson case have been on TV annually since their birth.
• Same-sex couples have always found marital bliss in the Netherlands.
• When filling out forms, they are not surprised to find more than two gender categories to choose from.
• Presidential candidates winning the popular vote and then losing the election are not unusual.
• Parents have always been watching Big Brother, and vice versa.
• They’ve grown up with stories about where their grandparents were on 11/22/63 and where their parents were on 9/11.
• There has never been an Enron.
• The Prius has always been on the road in the U.S.
• They never used a spit bowl in a dentist’s office.
• They have never seen a cross-town World Series.
• There has always been a Survivor.
• “You’ve got mail” would sound as ancient to them as “number, please” would have sounded to their parents.
• Mifepristone or RU-486, commonly called the “abortion pill,” has always been available in the U.S.
• A visit to a bank has been a rare event.
• They have never had to deal with “chads,” be they dimpled, hanging, or pregnant.
• Exotic animals have always been providing emotional support to passengers on planes.
• Thumbprints have always provided log in security—and are harder to lose—than a password.
• Robots have always been able to walk on two legs and climb stairs.
• None having served there, American Presidents have always visited Vietnam as Commander-in-Chief.
• There have always been space tourists willing to pay the price.
• Mass market books have always been available exclusively as Ebooks.
• Oprah has always been a magazine.
• Donny and Marie who?
• There have always been more than a billion people in India.
• Films have always been distributed on the Internet.
• Environmental disasters such as the BP Deepwater Horizon, and the coal sludge spill in Martin City, Ky., have always exceeded the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
• The detachable computer mouse is almost extinct.

Please remember to pray for the 21 million U.S. college students that are starting classes over the next few weeks. They are part of a changing world...and they also have the opportunity to influence how the world changes.

What Is True For The College Freshmen Of 2016?

Photo Credit: thinkglobalschool

Each year at the start of the new school year Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts, events and people which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2020, represents those students who were born in 1998. As you can see, this year's list highlights advances in technology, significant world events, and the many ways that today's college students experience the world differently from their parents.

You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

• There has always been a digital swap meet called eBay.
• Vladimir Putin has always been calling the shots at the Kremlin.
• The Sandy Hook tragedy is their Columbine.
• Cloning has always been a mundane laboratory procedure.
• The United States has always been at war.
• Serena Williams has always been winning Grand Slam singles titles.
• They have never had to watch or listen to programs at a scheduled time. 
• Each year they've been alive the U.S. population has grown by more than one million Latinos. 
• If you want to reach them, you’d better send a text—emails are oft ignored.
• They disagree with their parents as to which was the “first” Star Wars episode.
• NFL coaches have always had the opportunity to throw a red flag and question the ref.
• They have no memory of Bob Dole promoting Viagra.
• A Bush and a Clinton have always been campaigning for something big.
• While chads were hanging in Florida, they were potty training in all 50 states. 
• Deceased men have always been able to procreate.
• They have never seen billboard ads for cigarettes.
• There have always been iMacs on desks.
• Michael J. Fox has always spoken publicly about having Parkinson's disease.

Please remember to pray for the 21 million U.S. college students that are starting classes over the next few weeks. They are part of a changing world...and they also have the opportunity to influence how the world changes.

What Is True For The College Freshmen Of 2014?

Photo Credit: Novartis AG

Each year at the start of the new school year, Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2018, represents those students who were born in 1996. As you can see, this year's list highlights advances in science, changes in technology, significant world events, the role that social media now plays and the evolution of societal views on human sexuality and religion.

You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

• During their initial weeks of kindergarten, they were upset by endlessly repeated images of planes blasting into the World Trade Center.
• “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.”
• Celebrity “selfies” are far cooler than autographs.
• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has always been the only news program that really “gets it right.”
• The water cooler is no longer the workplace social center; it’s the place to fill your water bottle.
• In their lifetime, a dozen different actors have portrayed Nelson Mandela on the big and small screen.
• Hong Kong has always been part of China.
• Hello Dolly...cloning has always been a fact, not science fiction.
• Women have always been dribbling, and occasionally dunking, in the WNBA.
• Hell has always been associated less with torment and more with nothingness.
• There has always been “TV” designed to be watched exclusively on the web.
• They have never had to hide their dirty magazines under the bed.
• Attending schools outside their neighborhoods, they gather with friends on Skype, not in their local park.
• “Good feedback” means getting 30 likes on your last Facebook post in a single afternoon.
• Since Toys R Us created a toy registry for kids, visits to Santa are just a formality.

Please remember to pray for the 22 million U.S. college students that are starting classes over the next few weeks. They are part of a changing world...and they also have the opportunity to influence how the world changes.

What Is True For The College Freshmen Of 2013?

Photo Credit: Sterling College

Each year at the start of the new school year, Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2017, represents those students who were born in 1995.

You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

• As they started to crawl, so did the news across the bottom of the television screen.

• As their parents held them as infants, they may have wondered whether it was the baby or Windows 95 that had them more excited.

• As kids they may well have seen Chicken Run but probably never got chicken pox.

• Having a chat has seldom involved talking.

• Gaga has never been baby talk.

• They could always get rid of their outdated toys on eBay.

• They have known only two presidents.

• Their TV screens keep getting smaller as their parents’ screens grow ever larger.

• PayPal has replaced a pen pal as a best friend on line.

• Rites of passage have more to do with having their own cell phone and Skype accounts than with getting a driver’s license and car.

• A tablet is no longer something you take in the morning.

• Thanks to Megan's Law and Amber Alerts, parents have always had community support in keeping children safe.

• With GPS, they have never needed directions to get someplace, just an address.

• Java has never been just a cup of coffee.

• Olympic fever has always erupted every two years.

• In their first 18 years, they have watched the rise and fall of Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriquez.

• As they slept safely in their cribs, the Oklahoma City bomber and the Unabomber were doing their deadly work.

• There has never been a national maximum speed on U.S. highways.

• Their favorite feature films have always been largely, if not totally, computer generated.

• They have never really needed to go to their friend’s house so they could study together.

• Kevin Bacon has always maintained six degrees of separation in the cinematic universe.

• A Wiki has always been a cooperative web application rather than a shuttle bus in Hawaii.

• Their parents’ car CD player is soooooo ancient and embarrassing.

What is True For This Year's College Freshmen - 2012

Photo Credit: CollegeDegrees360

Each year around this time, Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2016, represents those students who were born in 1994. You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

- They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.” 

- The Biblical sources of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them. 

- Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.” 

- If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube. 

- Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway. 

- Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge. 

- For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department. 

- They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it. 

- Having grown up with MP3s and iPods, they never listen to music on the car radio and really have no use for radio at all. 

- Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends. 

- The Real World has always stopped being polite and started getting real on MTV. 

- White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited. 

- They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous. 

- Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens. 

- Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense strategy. 

- They have had to incessantly remind their parents not to refer to their CDs and DVDs as “tapes.” 

- Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place. 

- Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book. 

- NBC has never shown A Wonderful Life more than twice during the holidays. 

- They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.

- They watch television everywhere but on a television.

- Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes. 

What Is True For The Class Of 2015?

Photo Credit: StudyGroupAlex

Each year around this time Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2015, represents those students who were born in 1993. You can read the complete list here but I've included some entries below that I found particularly interesting:

There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.

The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.

There have always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.

As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.

Amazon has never been just a river in South America.

Refer to LBJ, and they might assume you're talking about LeBron James.

O.J. Simpson has always been looking for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

We have never asked, and they have never had to tell.

John Wayne Bobbitt has always slept with one eye open.

“Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short.

Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief.

Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!

Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.

Music has always been available via free downloads.

They pressured their parents to take them to Taco Bell or Burger King to get free pogs.

No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.

Charter schools have always been an alternative.

They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.

Frasier, Sam, Woody and Rebecca have never Cheerfully frequented a bar in Boston during primetime.

Major League Baseball has never had fewer than three divisions and never lacked a wild card entry in the playoffs.

They won’t go near a retailer that lacks a website.

“PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness.

The world that today's college freshman has grown up in is not the same world that the freshmen of 10, 20 or 50 years ago experienced. These things must be kept in mind in order to effectively reach out to this generation of up-and-coming leaders.

What is True of This Year's College Freshmen?

Photo Credit: Earlham College

Each year around this time Beloit College releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2014, represents those students who were born in 1992. You can read the complete list here but here are some entries that I found particularly interesting:

* For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.

* Few in the class know how to write in cursive.

* Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.

* Al Gore has always been animated.

* "Caramel macchiato" and "venti half-caf vanilla latte" have always been street corner lingo.

* With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.

* Entering college this fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they aren't afraid of immigration...unless it involves "real" aliens from another planet.

* Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

* Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.

* Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.

* Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.

* They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.

* Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.

* Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.

* Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.

* Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.

* They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

* Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.

* "Viewer Discretion" has always been an available warning on TV shows.

* The first home computer they probably touched was an Apple II or Mac II; they are now in a museum.

* Czechoslovakia has never existed.

* "Assisted Living" has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always offered an alternative to the hospital.

* Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.

* Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.

* Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

* Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.

* There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.

* American companies have always done business in Vietnam.

* Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

* The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.

*They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.

* Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

* Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.

* Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.

* Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

* Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.

* They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.

* Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.

* They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.

* It seems the Post Office has always been going broke.

* The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.

* The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.

* They've always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi (SYFY) Channel.

* Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.

(h/t to Scot McKnight)

What Is True For the Class of 2013

Each year around this time Beloit Collge releases what they call the Mindset List -- a list of important facts and events which influence the worldview and perspective that this year's college freshmen class brings with them.

This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2013, holds particularly significance for me since this year's freshmen in college were born in 1991 -- the year I graduated from high school. You can read the complete list here but here are some particular things that stood out to me:

For these students, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.

Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.

They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.

Salsa has always outsold ketchup.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.

Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.

They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.

Rap music has always been mainstream.

Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.

Condoms have always been advertised on television.

Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.

Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.

There has always been a Cartoon Network.

We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.

Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.

There have always been flat screen televisions.

Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.

They have never been Saved by the Bell.

Most communities have always had a mega-church.

There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.

CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.

Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.

Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.

Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

This Year's College Freshmen Class

Each year Beloit College distributes their Mindset List and this year's was just released. The Mindset List gives a glimpse into the worldview of the nation's 18 year olds and the world they grew up in. The complete list for the class of 2012 can be found here, but here are some things that stood out to me:

GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.

Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.

Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.

Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.

Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.

Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.

WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.

Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.

Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”

Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.

Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.

IBM has never made typewriters.

The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.

They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.

Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.

Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.

Caller ID has always been available on phones.

The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.

Soft drink refills have always been free.

They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”

Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.

98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.

Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.

This list always makes me feel old...