mijan | Beloit College: Potter Chronology FAIL!

I found this story originally on

coffee_n_cocoa's LJ, HERE.

Apparently, Beloit College makes a list every year called the Annual Freshmen Mindset List. It's a list of social/cultural things that define, in one way or another, the incoming class based on the world as it has been since they were born. The "Mindset List" for the class of 2012 begins:

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.

Let's hear it. First, the SQUEE of the initial "Ooh, they mentioned Harry Potter!", then the silence as we realize their chronology is off by a decade. Then, the long groan of fandomers who just want to inform these people of their grievous error, and then the collective sigh as we decide it's just not worth it.

Well, I was feeling rambunctious, so...

Hello,

Your "Class of 2012 Mindset List" was brought to my attention by a friend, and I had to inform you of your glaring error in item #1.

According to J.K. Rowling's chronology, Harry Potter would have been born on July 31st, 1980, not 1990. In other words, he'd be the exact same age as me: 28 years. He would have defeated Voldemort (or completed Hogwarts) at the same time as I graduated high school, in the spring of 1998, at the age of 17, just months before our 18th birthdays. If he were not fictional, he would certainly not be attending class or playing Quidditch with the current crop of college freshmen. By now, our fictional boy wizard would be a man working at the Ministry of Magic and raising his young children.

So, while I found the Potter reference to be quite amusing, it was incorrect and I wanted to let you know. If your Mindset List is indeed "a globally reported and utilized guide to the intelligent but unprepared adolescent consciousness," then it should be accurate, shouldn't it? I hope it hasn't been cited in too many sources yet.

Regards,
(My name here.)
Gryffindor, Hogwarts Class of 1998
Also University of New Hampshire, class of 2003.

I feel strangely accomplished.
:D