Appearing each year, the Beloit College Mindset List sheds some interesting light on the mindsets of those students entering college.  To orient you, most of the students entering this fall in the Class of 2014 were born in 1992.  While the official list presents 75 observations, I have culled out my favorites:

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

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

3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”

5. Los Angelenos have always been trying to get along.

7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.

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

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

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

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

29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.

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

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.

72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.

Good luck Class of 2014!  Onward,  Malcolm Gauld