Floppy Discs and “MRS” Degrees: 10 Things Incoming Frosh Don’t Know About

Every year since 1998, Beloit College has released a mindset list for the entering freshman class. The list serves as a fun warning to faculty and staff to watch their cultural references as they welcome a new group of students to campus. Many members of the class of 2016 were born in 1994 and are coming to college amid rising tuition costs, student loan debt, and a tough job market. They also bring with them a childhood of DVDs instead of  VHS tapes, MP3 players instead of a Walkman or Discman, and Facebook instead of Friendster. Here are 10 observations from the 75-point class of 2016 mindset list:

1. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.”
2. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.
3. For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the United States and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
4. They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
5.  A significant percentage of them will enter college with some hearing loss.
6. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a land-line telephone for “phone,” and a snail-mail envelope for “mail” oddly decorate their tablets and smartphone screens.
7. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
8. Mr. Burns has replaced J.R. Ewing as the most shot-at man on American television.
9. They watch TV on any device but a television.
10. Pulp Fiction’s “Royale with cheese” has little or no resonance with them.

The culture shifts in this list apply to most of the students who are headed to college this fall. But the list made me think about how the mindset of women in the class of 2016 may differ from previous generations of college women. So I made a list of five things that have changed for the women in the past few decades and five things that haven’t.

Five things that have changed

1. College women who don’t want to write a letter to the editor can use YouTube to voice their opinions.
2. They have always outnumbered men in college enrollment.
3. They’re more likely to earn a doctoral degree than an “MRS” degree.
4. When they look for political inspiration, they look to Leslie Knope since they might not know about Geraldine Ferraro.
5. There is a place for them on the sports field more often than before Title IX passed.

Five things that haven’t changed

1. They face the gender pay gap while carrying an increasing amount of student loan debt.
2. Women majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are unlikely to have female professors teaching their courses.
3. It is still a big deal when women are selected as university presidents. In 2011, 23 percent of college presidents were women.
4. Women are still less likely to coach collegiate athletic teams than men.
5. AAUW is here to support college women with scholarships, fellowships, and grants.

What else do incoming college freshmen not know about? What is specific to women students? Tell us in the comments below.

This post was written by AAUW College/University Relationships Manager Christine Hernandez.