Humor/whimsy

Beloit College has released its latest "Mindset List," to help academics understand what freshmen know -- and what they don't have a clue about. This list has been prepared each August since 1998 and past lists are available online.

Here is this year's list, for the Class of 2010:

At colleges across the country, students will be dressing up and downing drinks this weekend, engaging in any number of tricks not for kids. Traditions, new and old, die hard on Halloween. One legendary party is being resurrected, another lives on, while others on campus use Halloween as an opportunity to do good -- and even, strange as it may seem, to address the country’s challenges in science education.

Colleges across the country embrace the cage-free egg movement.

Isabel Vittorio, who, as a department chair at the fictional Austin University, had variously “been described as narcissistic, charismatic, brilliant, and opportunistic” was found slumped over her desk in the Department of Literature and Rhetoric early on a Monday morning, her neck broken. What ensues as the murder investigation unfolds is a peek inside what author Lynn C. Miller called the closed, “wonderful dysfunctional family template” of a humanities department.

Econ department thought it had perfect video to attract Ph.D. students. Current students thought otherwise -- and shared views on YouTube.

Citing health concerns, college food services are making new rules about ingredients.

Michigan Law School graduate sues his former institution because he says exams are harder for students who type slowly.

With March Madness here, dozens of pep bands are preparing to trumpet their colleges' fight songs in arenas across the country.

You can hear the lyrics and tunes on television throughout the tournament. But here's a look at some of the songs you won't hear, because the University of Southern California is the only one of the following institutions that made the Big Dance.

Our panel of scholarly experts offers insights into the competition -- and lessons for students from this year's contenders.

New novel satirizes the college admissions crunch.