1. Some alumni are reluctant to reveal where they went to school, instead opting to say things like, "I went to school up state NY" or "one of the ivies". We used to talk about why this was the case and concluded that it's because though Cornellians are proud, they still have inferiority complex against people who went to Yale, Harvard, and Columbia. And Stanford if you're from California ;-)
2. Your story about large biochem course and how it's run. I had a roommate who was a biochem major (though in the 90s) and lamented how Cornell had these 'weed-out' courses deliberately designed to winnow out the smartest. ('Orgo' i.e. organic chemistry being on of them)
3. Use of lingos like "biochem" or "TAs". I'm sure other ivies use these, but when I heard these two works, I had a flashback to my undergrad days.
Btw, off topic, I recently visited and stayed at the Statler hotel, booked a room overlooking the Tower road and relived the old campus days. I'm not the one to regret much, but I spent too much time studying and didn't take advantage of the beautiful Ithaca while I was there. Better late than never ;-)
