On Campus

Introducing the Class of 2012

What influences have affected your worldview?

Beloit College has released the 11th iteration of the Beloit College Mindset List. The list is an attempt to identify the experiences that have influenced the worldview of the 18 year-old American students who are beginning their post-secondary education in the fall of 2008.

According to the authors, the Class of 2012 is a “multicultural, politically correct and green generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact”. For this generation of students:

  • Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles
  • Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option
  • Films have never been X-rated, only NC-17
  • There has always been Pearl Jam
  • Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead

Comment on this story to tell us what experiences have affected your worldview.

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