NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Four-year-old Bray Russell plays under the bed while his cousin, incoming freshman Michael Heath, unpacks at Cedro. Glenn Matsumura

among the 1,650 freshmen who arrived on the Farm in September, nearly 80 percent had high school grade point averages of 4.0 or higher, and 88 percent ranked in the top 10 percent of their graduating high school classes.

For all their smarts, though, they’re still teenagers. Consider these observations, from a list compiled annually by the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin:

The CD was introduced the year they were born.

They have always had an answering machine.

They have always had cable.

They don’t have a clue how to use a typewriter.

They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

Jay Leno has always been host of The Tonight Show.

Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.

They’ve never known a world without AIDS.

They are too young to remember the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger or the nuclear accident at Chernobyl.

They don’t know who J.R. was—or why anybody would want to shoot him.