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Beloit College Mindset List: How does the class of 2016 view the world?

Every year, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., releases its Mindset List to give a snapshot of how the incoming freshmen class views the world.

Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1994. For these students, Kurt Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon, and John Wayne Gacy have always been "historic" not "contemporary" figures. According to Beloit college officials Ron Nief and Tom McBride, there are 75 ways the freshman of 2016 look at the world differently than their professors.

AP Photo
Beloit College's mindset list: (from left) Justin Bieber, an iPhone, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. This year's mindset list, a nonscientific compilation, is meant to remind teachers that college freshmen, born mostly in 1994, see the world in a much different way.

Justin Bieber, cyberspace, and the Bible

  • By Ron Nief and Tom McBride Beloit College

1. They should keep their eyes open for Justin Bieber or Dakota Fanning at freshman orientation.

2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics."

3. The Biblical sources of terms such as "forbidden fruit," ''the writing on the wall," ''good Samaritan," and "the promised land" are unknown to most of them.

4. Michael Jackson's family, not the Kennedys, constitutes "American royalty."

5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube.

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