Class of 2016 should be recognized for successes 
As the fall semester begins at USC and schools across the nation, students and faculty welcome a new class of freshmen: the "newbies," the students who have no idea what they're doing but make up for their confusion with enthusiasm and excitement.
Beloit College's Mindset List, which annually posts the current freshman class's "mindset," goes so far as to say the freshman class was "born into cyberspace." This suggests that the class of 2016 has grown up in a bubble — self-involved, obsessed with and dependent on technology. To some, this is an indication that we don't know anything about the world without smartphones and YouTube. It's true, those in the class of 2016 have led a very different lives compared to those who came before them. It is true that we, as freshmen, may not know how to develop pictures from negatives or how to fax instead of scanning and copying. But that doesn't mean we live in a bubble.
To make such a wide-sweeping generalization about any group of people is to limit them by their title or, in this case, by their year. The class of 2016 is more than a generalization. Just as it would be wrong to single out anyone or anything based on a broad overview, it is wrong to limit us by the world in which we grew up.
It is important that this year's freshmen are encouraged and recognized for what they have done to succeed. In USC's case, this year's freshmen registered higher SAT scores than last year. With so many great things to think about, it is unnecessary to limit the freshmen to a fact sheet or try to force them into an oversimplified stereotype.