This year’s entering college class of 2021
can't remember when a "phone" wasn't a video
game and research library. Mostly born in 1999,
they've always been searching for Pokemon.
They've never read a Peanuts strip that wasn't a
repeat and they never had the privilege of a
Montgomery Ward catalogue as a booster seat.
They have persevered in a world without Joe
Dimaggio and brightened by emojis. If you ask
them about the whine of a dial-up modem, expect
a blank stare.
These are among the items in this year’s Beloit
College Mindset List, the 20th such release
since the list was first compiled in 1998. The
List's current subjects are the last class to be
born in the 1900s – the last of the Millennials.
The Beloit College Mindset List is created by
Ron Nief, Director Emeritus of Beloit College
Public Affairs; Tom McBride, Professor Emeritus
of English; and Charles Westerberg,
Brannon-Ballard Professor of Sociology.
"Members of this class have generally borrowed a
lot of money to go to college, so expect them to
think of themselves as consumers and not just as
students," said Westerberg, former director of
Beloit’s Liberal Arts in Practice Center. "And
they will also be concerned not just with what
they need to learn but also who they are and to
what group they genuinely belong."
The
Mindset List for the Class of 2021
Students heading into their first year of
college this year are mostly 18 and were born in
1999.
Among the iconic figures who have never been
alive in their lifetimes are Joe DiMaggio, John
F. Kennedy Jr., Walter Payton, and Dusty
Springfield.
- Their classmates could include Eddie
Murphy’s Zola and Mel Gibson’s Tommy, or
Jackie Evancho singing down the hall.
- They are the last class to be born in
the 1900s, the last of the Millennials --
enter next year, on cue, Generation Z!
- They are the first generation for whom a
“phone” has been primarily a video game,
direction finder, electronic telegraph, and
research library.
- Electronic signatures have always been
as legally binding as the pen-on-paper kind.
- In college, they will often think of
themselves as consumers, who’ve borrowed a
lot of money to be there.
- eHarmony has always offered an algorithm
for happiness.
- Peanuts comic strips have always been
repeats.
- They have largely grown up in a
floppy-less world.
- They have never found Mutual
Broadcasting or Westinghouse Group W on the
radio dial, but XM has always offered radio
programming for a fee.
- There have always been emojis to cheer
us up.
- The Panama Canal has always belonged to
Panama and Macau has been part of China.
- It is doubtful that they have ever used
or heard the high-pitched whine of a dial-up
modem.
- They were never able to use a Montgomery
Ward catalogue as a booster seat.
- Donald Trump has always been a political
figure, as a Democrat, an Independent, and a
Republican.
- Zappos has always meant shoes on the
Internet.
- They are the first generation to grow up
with Watson outperforming Sherlock.
- Amazon has always invited consumers to
follow the arrow from A to Z.
- Their folks have always been able to get
reward points by paying their taxes to the
IRS on plastic.
- In their lifetimes, Blackberry has gone
from being a wild fruit to being a
communications device to becoming a wild
fruit again.
- They have always been searching for
Pokemon.
- They may choose to submit a listicle in
lieu of an admissions essay.
- Dora the Explorer and her pet monkey
Boots helped to set them on the course of
discovery.
- The seat of Germany’s government has
always been back in Berlin.
- Jet Blue has always been a favorite
travel option but the Concorde has been
permanently grounded.
- By the time they entered school, laptops
were outselling desktops.
- There has never been a Coliseum in New
York, but there has always been a London Eye
on the Thames.
- Once on campus, they will find that
college syllabi, replete with policies about
disability, non-discrimination, and learning
goals, might be longer than some of their
reading assignments.
- As toddlers they may have dined on some
of that canned food hoarded in case of Y2K.
- An ophthalmologist named Bashar al-Assad
has always provided vision for the Syrian
military.
- Whatever the subject, there’s always
been a blog for it.
- U.S. Supreme Court decisions have always
been available at its website.
- Globalization has always been both a
powerful fact of life and a source of
incessant protest.
- One out of four major league baseball
players has always been born outside the
United States.
- Carl Sagan has always had his own crater
on Mars.
- A movie scene longer than two minutes
has always seemed like an eternity.
- The Latin music industry has always had
its own Grammy Awards.
- Ketchup has always come in green.
- They have only seen a Checker Cab in a
museum.
- Men have always shared a romantic smooch
on television.
- They never got to see Jimmy Kimmel and
Ben Stein co-host a quiz show or Dennis
Miller provide commentary for the NFL.
- As toddlers, they may have taught their
grandparents how to Skype.
- The image of Sacagawea has always
adorned the dollar coin, if you can find
one.
- Having another child has always been a
way to secure matching tissue to heal an
older sibling.
- There have always been Latino players on
the ice in the NHL.
- Napster has always been evolving.
- Nolan Ryan has always worn his Texas
Rangers cap in Cooperstown, while Steve
Young and Dan Marino have always been
watching football from the sidelines.
- The BBC has always had a network in the
U.S. where they speak American.
- There has never been a sanctioned Texas
A&M bonfire.
- There has always been a Monster in their
corner when looking for a job.
- Wikipedia has steadily gained acceptance
by their teachers.
- Justin Timberlake has always been a solo
act.
- U.S. professional baseball teams have
always played in Cuba.
- Barbie and American Girl have always
been sisters at Mattel.
- Family Guy is the successor to the
Father Knows Best they never knew.
- Motorola and Nokia have always been
incredibly shrinking giants.
- Melissa has always been too nice a name
to be attached to a computer macro virus.
- The Mars Polar Lander has always been
lost.
- Women have always scaled both sides of
Everest and rowed across the Atlantic.
- Bill Clinton has always been Hillary
Clinton’s aging husband.
- Paleontologists have always imagined
dinosaurs with colorful plumage.
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