161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do

161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do

Cornell is a big place. There’s a lot to do. Here’s a list of 161 things that every Cornellian should do during their time on the Hill. It was originally compiled from a 2005 email survey to students, and was updated this summer. Best of luck!

  1. Make the library into your bedroom and have sex in the stacks
  2. Finally meet the dazzling Denice Cassaro
  3. Go to the Cornell-Harvard men’s hockey game and throw fish on the ice
  4. Take off to NYC for Fall Break, being sure to post on Instagram about it at least twice
  5. Sled down Libe Slope during a snowstorm
  6. Take Hotel Administration 4300: Introduction to Wines
  7. Streak across the Arts Quad
  8. Enroll in BIOEE 1540: Introductory Oceanography as a joke, then fall in love with Bruce Monger and attend every class
  9. Test out Olin Library’s musically calibrated steps by kicking stones across them
  10. Go sake bombing at Plum Tree or Miyake
  11. Order ice cream at the Dairy Bar
  12. Climb the rock wall in Bartels Hall
  13. Listen to a full chimes concert from the clock tower and guess the songs played
  14. Order the same thing off the Collegetown Bagels menu all four years
  15. Register for classes during Freshman Pre-Enroll, then switch out of every single one by the time Add/Drop ends
  16. Wear flip-flops to class in January
  17. Go to the Fuertes Observatory on North Campus and look through a telescope
  18. Have a snowball fight in May
  19. Stick your hand inside a fistulated cow
  20. Skip class to play frisbee on the Arts Quad
  21. Bury a bottle of Bacardi on the Slope. Dig it up on Slope Day.
  22. Observe the golden hour at the Cornell Botanic Gardens
  23. Attend the Apple Festival on the Commons
  24. Flirt with your professor
  25. Bomb a prelim
  26. Ace the next one to save your grade
  27. Attend Hotelie prom
  28. Take a selfie with Happy Dave from Okenshield’s
  29. Take 3 finals in two days because they were just over 24 hours apart
  30. Get heartburn at the Chili Cook-off on the Commons
  31. Enjoy Ithaca’s two months of warm weather — spend a summer here!
  32. Go to a Shabbat dinner at 104West!
  33. Watch the AAP students parade down East Avenue on Dragon Day
  34. Walk out of class and directly to happy hour in Collegetown.
  35. Build a snow penis or count how many you see around campus
  36. Dress up and view The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Risley
  37. Take a class you think is impossible just for fun
  38. Go on a wine tour
  39. Kiss on the suspension bridge at midnight
  40. Sleep through your alarm for a 1:25 p.m. class
  41. Shop at the Friends of the Library Book Sale
  42. Get a University parking ticket, then talk your way out of it
  43. Buy an Ithaca Is Gorges t-shirt, then get sick of wearing it and buy a variation (Ithaca Is Gangsta, Vaginas Are Gorges, Ithaca Is Long Island…)
  44. Learn the “Alma Mater,” “Evening Song” and “Give My Regards to Davy”
  45. Attend an opening at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
  46. Smuggle food from the dining hall and run for your life as they try to get back your stolen cookies
  47. Make the Walk of Shame
  48. Have dinner at a professor’s house
  49. Get wasted at a professor’s house
  50. Take a selfie with a Cornell president
  51. Play a game of tag in the Kroch Library stacks
  52. See a play in Risley
  53. Take a class that meets outside
  54. Start your freshman year pre-med. Graduate as a Hotelie.
  55. Kayak or canoe on Beebe Lake
  56. Watch dancers fly through the air at Pao Bhangra show
  57. Have a midnight picnic in the Ag Quad
  58. Wait in line for half an hour for a salad at Terrace
  59. Ignore the “No Winter Maintenance” signs … slip and fall down the stairs
  60. Sit in Libe Café when you have no work to do and watch the worried students down gallons of coffee
  61. Write an angry letter to the editor of The Sun
  62. Visit Wegmans between 3 and 5 a.m.
  63. Explore the secret underground tunnel between Uris and Olin libraries
  64. Request an item from the library’s Rare and Manuscript Collection.
  65. Pretend you are Harry Potter and study in the A.D. White Reading Room
  66. See the brain collection in Uris Hall
  67. Eat at Taverna Banfi and charge it to CornellCard
  68. Eat your way through the Farmer’s Market
  69. Take Plant Pathology 2010: Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds
  70. Take part in a psychology experiment
  71. Take an unplanned nap in a library
  72. Occupy Willard Straight or storm Day Hall
  73. Following the legend, watch a virgin cross the Arts Quad at midnight and watch A.D. White and Ezra Cornell walk towards each other and shake hands
  74. Live through an Ithaca blizzard and tell your friends how you survived frostbite
  75. Throw a flaming pumpkin into the gorge
  76. Join an intramural sports team. Take it too seriously and get matching uniforms.
  77. Spend all your lectures figuring out the day’s crossword. While sitting for the final, wish you had taken notes instead
  78. Hook up with your T.A.
  79. Order a PMP at the Hot Truck
  80. Play trivia at Rulloff’s on Sunday nights
  81. Make the trek down the hill: go to a townie bar
  82. Make a fool of yourself at karaoke at Loco on Tuesday
  83. Hit up Fishbowl Wednesdays at Level B
  84. Go bowling at Helen Newman Lanes
  85. Hand out quartercards on Ho Plaza
  86. Drive your car up and down Libe Slope
  87. Have a friend’s parents take you out to eat at John Thomas Steakhouse or Boatyard Grill
  88. Eat a chicken parm sandwich from Louie’s Lunch
  89. Order Wings Over after 2 a.m.
  90. Get thrown out of Balch Hall
  91. Heckle your tour guide friend as they’re leading a group of prospective students around campus.
  92. Go skinny dipping in a gorge
  93. Get lost during O-week as a freshman, and end up in the Commons
  94. Go to an a cappella concert
  95. Go ice skating at Lynah Rink
  96. Make it onto the Ivy League snap story
  97. Sell back your books; use money to buy alcohol
  98. Hang in hammock on Ho Plaza
  99. Eat a Pinesburger, then watch water flow over Taughannock Falls, the  highest single-drop waterfall east of the Rockies.
  100. Walk to a fraternity party with your entire freshman floor
  101. Go to a fraternity party as a senior; convince yourself you were never one of them
  102. Get lost in Collegetown during Orientation Week
  103. Get negged at a bar because the bouncer is actually friends with the person whose I.D. you are using
  104. See a film at Cornell Cinema
  105. Eat Mongo at RPCC
  106. See a concert at Barton Hall
  107. Gain the freshman 15. Pay $145 for a gym membership and don’t go.
  108. Eat brunch on North Campus
  109. Go swimming at Treman State Park, Buttermilk Falls or Second Dam
  110. Fail your swim test, just for kicks
  111. Tailgate for homecoming
  112. Walk the runway as a model in the Cornell Fashion Collective’s annual fashion show
  113. Host a prefrosh
  114. Request a song to be played on the clock tower
  115. Get guilt-tripped into giving blood
  116. Get asked if you are pregnant at Cornell Health
  117. Drink with your R.A.
  118. Make a chalking. Weep when it rains that night
  119. Get on the wrong TCAT and end up at Ithaca College
  120. Meet Bill Nye ’77, “The Science Guy,” and give him a hug
  121. See how long you can go without doing laundry
  122. Go on a road trip to Canada, flirt with the border patrol, smuggle booze back
  123. Try to order pizza from a Blue Light phone
  124. Go to the sex shop, called the “Adult Outlet,” on the Commons
  125. Plan on going to The Slope on Slope Day, but don’t end up making it there.
  126. Complain about the Slope Day headliners
  127. Get tapped for a secret society
  128. Visit Ithaca Mall, realize it is severely lacking, then drive to Destiny USA Mall in Syracuse
  129. Lose a friend over signing a lease in Collegetown
  130. Run out of BRBs in March. Live off campus events’ free food for the rest of the year
  131. Walk holding hands around Beebe Lake
  132. Visit the Sciencenter
  133. See Yamatai bang it out at Pulse
  134. Get J.A.’d for urinating on the Law School
  135. Take the BASICS program
  136. Hook up with someone randomly and then see them every day afterward
  137. Go to a coffee house in JAM
  138. See how many people you can cram into your dorm room
  139. Rush a fraternity/sorority or mosey a Co-op during your freshman spring
  140. Write dirty messages with rocks in the gorge
  141. Ride a horse at Oxley Equestrian Center
  142. Ring the giant bell in the arboretum at the Cornell Botanic Gardens
  143. Crash a political rally on Ho Plaza
  144. Do the COE ropes course
  145. Attend a show at the State Theatre or Hangar Theatre
  146. Prank call the CIT HelpDesk
  147. Sleep through pre-enroll and change your major as a result
  148. Ski at Greek Peak
  149. Take a night prelim near the vet school, walk back in the dark
  150. Cheer on your friends as they perform at the Schwartz Center
  151. Go to ClubFest as a first-year and sign up for a dozen clubs that you’ll never go to
  152. Walk to class in the snow, uphill both ways
  153. Buy a Cornell-grown apple from a vending machine
  154. Furnish an apartment entirely with items from the Dump & Run
  155. Eat at each dining hall at least once
  156. Ask for an extension on a term paper
  157. Take part in Holi and get colorful
  158. Take a midnight nap in Uris Library Cocktail Lounge and wake up 3 days later
  159. Tell a professor what you really think of his/her class
  160. Attend a Sun meeting
  161. Climb all 161 steps to the top of McGraw Tower