News

Some facts about the experiences of students who are entering university this year - the class of 2008 at Harbord Collegiate Institute, generally born in 1990 - according to the Beloit College Mindset List, which is released every August from that school in Wisconsin.

• The students have seldom used land-based phone lines in their adolescence.
• Roommates, few of whom ever shared a room with another person back home, will have already checked out each other's likes, dislikes, social connections, photos and personal thoughts on Facebook.
• Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
• Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
• GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
• Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
• Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
• Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
• Martha Stewart has always been dispensing fashion advice.
• Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
• The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
• IBM has never made typewriters.
• McDonald's and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking French fries.
• The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno.
• They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
• Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
• Lenin's name has never been on a major city in Russia.
• Personal privacy has always been threatened.
• Caller ID has always been available on phones.
• They have never known life without Seinfeld and Simpsons references.
• Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
• Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
• The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
• Kids always had Goosebumps.