The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013.
Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.
- For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
- Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.
- The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
- 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 main stream.
- Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
- Someone has always been building something taller than the Willis (n?e Sears) Tower in Chicago.
- The KGB has never officially existed.
- Text has always been hyper.
- They never saw the “Scud Stud” (but there have always been electromagnetic stud finders.)
- Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
- They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
- Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
- They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.
- American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.
- Except for the present incumbent, the President has never inhaled.
- State abbreviations in addresses have never had periods.
- The European Union has always existed.
- McDonald’s has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
- Condoms have always been advertised on television.
- Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
- Christopher Columbus has always been getting a bad rap.
- The American health care system has always been in critical condition.
- Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
- Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
- There has always been a Cartoon Network.
- The nation’s key economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
- Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
- They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
- Women have always outnumbered men in college.
- We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
- Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
- Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have always been independent nations.
- It’s always been official: President Zachary Taylor did not die of arsenic poisoning.
- Madonna’s perspective on Sex has always been well documented.
- Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball.
- Ozzy Osbourne has always been coming back.
- Kevin Costner has always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable.
- There have always been flat screen televisions.
- They have always eaten Berry Berry Kix.
- Disney’s Fantasia has always been available on video, and It’s a Wonderful Life has always been on Moscow television.
- Smokers have never been promoted as an economic force that deserves respect.
- Elite American colleges have never been able to fix the price of tuition.
- Nobody has been able to make a deposit in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
- Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
- Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
- They have never been Saved by the Bell
- Someone has always been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”
- Most communities have always had a mega-church.
- Natalie Cole has always been singing with her father.
- The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
- Elizabeth Taylor has always reeked of White Diamonds.
- There has always been a Planet Hollywood.
- For one reason or another, California’s future has always been in doubt.
- Agent Starling has always feared the Silence of the Lambs.
- “Womyn” and “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.
- Members of Congress have always had to keep their checkbooks balanced since the closing of the House Bank.
- There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
- CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging.
- Avon has always been “calling” in a catalog.
- NATO has always been looking for a role.
- Two Koreas have always been members of the UN.
- Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.
- The NBC Today Show has always been seen on weekends.
- Vice presidents of the United States have always had real power.
- Conflict in Northern Ireland has always been slowly winding down.
- 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.”
- Congress could never give itself a mid-term raise.
- There has always been blue Jell-O.