Mindset List for fall 2007 entering freshmen.

Welcome back to campus. Each year, Beloit College in Wisconsin publishes an annual Mindset List about the entering 2007 freshman class at colleges and universities across America. Being a four-year university, they call this year’s list “The Entering Post-Cold War Class of 2011″ referring to students who are generally 18, which suggests they were born in 1989. According to the description on the Beloit’s Web site, the Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in the year that entering first-year students were born. It is an effort to identify a world view of 18 year-olds in the fall 2007. The authors admit risking generalizations but note the list identifies experiences and event horizons of students as they commence higher education. For more detailed information visit: beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/index.php, which is also the source of this list.

It’s worth the visit. Enjoy the insight.

What Berlin wall? Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public. Rush Limbaugh and the “Dittoheads” have always been lambasting liberals. They never “rolled down” a car window. Michael Moore has always been angry and funny. They may confuse the Keating Five with a rock group. They have grown up with bottled water. General Motors has always been working on an electric car. Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa. Pete Rose has never played baseball. Rap music has always been mainstream. Religious leaders have always been telling politicians what to do, or else! “Off the hook” has never had anything to do with a telephone. Music has always been “unplugged.” Russia has always had a multi-party political system. Women have always been police chiefs in major cities. They were born the year Harvard Law Review Editor Barack Obama announced he might run for office some day. The NBA season has always gone on and on and on and on. Classmates could include Michelle Wie, Jordin Sparks, and Bart Simpson. Half of them may have been members of the Baby-sitters Club. Eastern Airlines has never “earned their wings” in their lifetime. No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of “liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM. Being “lame” has to do with being dumb or inarticulate, not disabled. Wolf Blitzer has always been serving up the news on CNN. Katie Couric has always had screen cred. Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it. They never found a prize in a Coca-Cola “MagiCan.” They were too young to understand Judas Priest’s subliminal messages. When all else fails, the Prozac defense has always been a possibility.

For the full list, please visit beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/index.php