Eighteen Assumptions for 18-Year-Olds

Beloit College has assembled observations that help to identify the experiences that have shaped the lives—and formed the mindset—of students starting their post-secondary education in the Fall.

Most students entering college for the first time this Fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.

1. For these students, Sam Walton of Walmart fame has always been dead.
2. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
3. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
4. Entering college this Fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent.
5. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.
6. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.
7. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
8. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
9. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
10. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.
11. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.
12. Czechoslovakia has never existed.
13. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
14. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
15. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.
16. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
17. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.

No matter the year, Jesus’ promise is always valid in Matthew 28:20, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”