Most of the class of 2014 was born in 1992. As a result of your world experience from then till now, you have a unique mindset that affects your lives and your educational experience as you go off to college this fall.
Beloit College in Wisconsin has been attempting to capture what is unique with each college graduating class since 1998, yes, starting after you were born. You can check out how you are defined at the Mindset List on their website or on Facebook.
So what does this list tell you about yourselves and how you will experience college?
First, your professors should know they can’t make allusions and jokes about Dirty Harry, J. R. Ewing, or Fergie, because your reference to these persons is either nil or very different from theirs.
Because you have been used to Olympic athletes being HIV positive, used to disability accommodations, used to immigrants in your classes, you are comfortable with a diversified student body.
There are fewer males in your class, and equality of the sexes is not a phantom idea.
You don’t need a wrist watch because you have a cell phone, you don’t write in cursive because this is the digital age, and you want everything at internet speed because you can get it. You may have to force yourself to slow down when it comes to scholarship, close reading, and learning details.
You can access any and all kinds of information by the tap of a finger with hand-held devices. You are inundated by knowledge constantly and may need guidance to distinguish what is good and what is not-so-good information.
You are in the post-email generation. You certainly don’t use snail mail, but even email is too slow. You text, abbreviate, and write tersely. You may need to consider how papers and essays should be written.
And, there has been no known-threat from Russia, but you are now quite aware of the need for both Arabic and Chinese studies; you are definitely more worldly.
Whatever you are, good luck with your first semester!
