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!

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