Every year Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin publishes what it calls "The Mindset List"--fun facts and figures about the incoming crop of freshmen so professors will be able to relate to their new students. Beloit says the list is a reminder that the world view of today's new college students is significantly different from the intellectual framework of those students who entered only a few years earlier. Put another way, it's a reminder that you are getting on in years. One of the list's creators is Beloit professor Tom McBride, who quips, "It is an alert for those of us who may be suffering from hardening of the references." And there's no medicine for this! So to better understand how the class of 2007 thinks, most of whom were born in 1985, read this and feel your age:

1.The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1985.
2.They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era and probably did not know he had ever been shot.
3.They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
4.There has been only one pope in their lifetime.
5.They were 10 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.
6.They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up on takeoff.
7.Tiananmen Square means nothing to them.
8.Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic.
9.Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums.
10.The statement "You sound like a broken record" means nothing to them. (They have never owned a record player.)
11.They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong.
12.They may have never heard of an 8-track tape. The compact disc was introduced when they were 1 year old.
13.They have always had an answering machine.
14.Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black and white TV.
15.They have always had cable.
16.There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what Beta was.
17.They cannot fathom not having a remote control.
18.They don't know what a cloth baby diaper is or know about the "Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up!" commercial.
19.They were born the year that Walkman was introduced by Sony.
20.Roller skating has always meant inline for them.
21.Michael Jackson has always been white.
22.Jay Leno has always been on "The Tonight Show."
23.They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
24.Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
25.They have never seen Larry Bird play.
26.They never took a swim and thought about "Jaws."
27.The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as World War I, World War II, and the Civil War.
28.They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
29.They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
30.They don't know who Mork was or where he was from. (The correct answer,by the way, is Ork.)
31.They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel," or "De plane, de plane!"
32.They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. was.
33.Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not bands.
34.There has always been MTV.
35.They don't have a clue how to use a typewrite

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Linkie!!!!

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Hmmmmm I have no idea why Jordache jeans were cool either.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Astro74
Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin

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My alma mater.

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Chips: When did you attend?

I ask as a former Chamberlin Rat

Small world, isn't it?

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quote:

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Originally posted by wonderaz
Hmmmmm I have no idea why Jordache jeans were cool either.

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As far as those go for me, every single one is wrong, except for the part about me not really caring. This isn't saying much, though, as most kids my age seemingly hadn't heard of Friday The 13th, Halloween, or A Nightmare On Elm Street except for from Freddy Vs. Jason. Oh, and I once played a MUD where a good deal of the players and even the coder and IMMS were from beloit. It truly is a small and fucked up world.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Astro74
11.They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong.

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hes right that list is total bullshit. I was born in 1984 and i know about all that shit. Although to be fair i do hang out with old people quite a lot.

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You're forgetting American kids are a lot stupider than Brits.

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That list did kinda make me feel old.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Aydin
You're forgetting American kids are a lot stupider than Brits.

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the average american kid is slightly above the average brit in raw brainpower (as a result of our more recent gene-pool weeding). also, american kids seem a bit more likely to destroy their brains, so i guess it pretty much evens out.

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quote:

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You're forgetting American kids are a lot stupider than Brits.

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Todays lesson

Double Indemnifiers

There,

that's more better.

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Sabine had no idea what pong was when I mentioned it the other day.

-m

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That list has been through several permutations, only this one isn't that funny, or accurate.

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You call it Pong? I call mine Wally.

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You're confused.

Pong has two bats and one ball

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Yup. Same list goes out every year. Usually the same type of stuff. Just the fact that kids born 5 years after I was are in college makes me feel old.

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quote:

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Originally posted by squee
Chips: When did you attend?

I ask as a former Chamberlin Rat

Small world, isn't it?

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I'll be damned. Must have been an uncomfortable place for a person of your political beliefs. But then, you hard sciences folks never left the lab anyway.

1992-94. I was opinion editor of the new improved "respectable" Round Table and a TKE, among other things. When were you there?

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quote:

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Originally posted by aminal
This list is a bunch of ass, doesn't Beloit College have anything better to do? like teach?

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Given the two graduates on this board, apparently not.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CHiPsJr
I'll be damned. Must have been an uncomfortable place for a person of your political beliefs. But then, you hard sciences folks never left the lab anyway.

1992-94. I was opinion editor of the new improved "respectable" Round Table and a TKE, among other things. When were you there?

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1997-99, and a Phi Psi.

The Round Table was just so much undergrad blathering by the time I got there.

And as far as beliefs go...I didn't really come into those until pretty recently...I would say until the Spring of 2001 I was a pretty dedicated Liberal and cultural relativist. But you're right...I never did leave that building

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