Freshmen, take heed. You will soon discover that the best part of choosing Notre Dame or Saint Mary's as your home for the next four years is not the world-class education you will receive, the outstanding athletic traditions or the beautiful campuses. The best thing these schools will ever give you is the 24-hour Ethernet connection to which you and your parents are currently trying to stretch a computer cord.

That little white box in the wall will not only turn you into an e-mail junkie and an Instant Messenger addict, it gives you the golden opportunity to amass as many MP3s as you can. And with your new thousand-song collection comes the art of creating the perfect playlist for sweaty, Natty Light-infested dorm room parties.

This is the stuff freshman year is made of: making out with a total stranger in a dark corner while *NSYNC or Nelly blares into your ears, dancing on top of couches at Lafayette with your new best friends screaming "Sweet Caroline" at the top of your lungs, tearing up each time the marching band begins the alma mater. It's the music of leaving home, making new friends, failing out of chemistry and learning to tailgate like a true ND fan — the soundtrack of your freshman year.

Moving Away From Home

You've packed all your worldly belongings into milk crates and your mother is screaming that if you don't start consolidating, the minivan will never make it out of the driveway. You're excited and nervous and not looking forward to a nine-hour car ride with the family. You just want to get to South Bend. It's time to make this place something more real than the glossy photos the admissions office has been stuffing in your mailbox all year. As Tom Petty sang in "Time to Move On": "It's time to move on / Time to get going / What lies ahead I have no way of knowing / But under my feet, baby, grass is growing / It's time to move on, time to get going."

Driving Across Country

After hours of watching cornfield upon cornfield (and worrying that the University of Hawaii might have been a better college choice), your parents turn the car onto Notre Dame Avenue or The Avenue at Saint Mary's. It's been a long drive, and as the Samples sang in "Indiana," you'll never forget that first ride. "I remember the first time I drove through Indiana / Thinking to myself how big this land really is / Amber waves of grain from a highway / Who lives in that house so far away?"

Hometown Honey Blues

Like the dutiful boyfriend or girlfriend that you are, you skipped the Jamaica Shaka and the Frosh O Fiesta (wise decisions, since Freshman O was much cooler when the Graffiti Dance sanctioned a meat market of magic markers and public humiliation). You call your "hometown honey" every night to reassure him or her of your complete and total faithfulness. But then you and your section mates learn the fine art of dining hall scoping, and you start to notice that cutie in your calc class. Next thing you know, prom pictures of you and your love are ripped off the wall and you have a different SYR date for every weekend. Hey, don't feel guilty — this is your time to live it up, said Crosby, Stills & Nash in "Love the One You're With": "Don't be angry, don't be sad / Don't sit cryin' over good times you've had / There's a girl right next to you / And she's just waiting for something to do…"

Cheer, Cheer for Ol' Notre Dame

If you haven't noticed it yet, you're in the land of football. Fall in South Bend is dedicated to following the team, and the traditions of football weekends must be strictly adhered to. Party like a rock star on Friday night, drag yourself out of the loft early Saturday morning for kegs and eggs at Turtle Creek or subs and beer at your parents' tailgate. Cheer like a maniac for the Fighting Irish. Under threat of death, never, never sit down during the game. Try to learn the appropriate chants, jigs and hand signals as quickly as possible so the seniors won't ridicule you. And wrap your arms around the guy next to you, even if you don't know him, and sing and sway along to the Alma mater.

Music is an essential part of football rituals, and nothing captures the nostalgia of these autumn days better than the theme to "Rudy," a movie you must watch at least once a semester and be able to quote freely. The sappy swells of violins are also perfect for those dark, dreary days in mid-February when you start to deeply resent South Bend weather and ache for home.

Midterm Madness

Now, you do have to attend classes occasionally, so your parents think their $30,000 a year is worth something. And as you wrote in your application essays, you're a dedicated, self-motivated student, right? You first walked through the doors of Debartolo or Madeleva Hall with that confident, I-know-exactly-what-I'm-doing-with-my-life stride. But then you failed chemistry or flunked out of calculus, and now you just want to drown your sorrows in forties and Goldeneye tournaments. As Phish sang in "Chalk Dust Torture": "The torturous chalk dust collects on my tongue / Can't this wait till I'm old? / Can't I live while I'm young?" Be strong, though — thousands of freshmen before you have pulled out of academic slumps, and you'll do it, too. Right after "Passions." And a Reckers or Dalloway's run.

Only the Good Die Young

This Billy Joel song will be played at every party, SYR and bar you go to for the next four years, so learn to like it. This song is essential to your freshman year soundtrack because it sums up pretty much everything that Notre Dame and Saint Mary's social life is about: dealing with the sexual repression caused by years of Catholic schooling. "Come out, Virginia, don't let me wait / You Catholic girls start much too late." Now you understand the mentality of random hook-ups, liquid courage and piling 20 people in a cab to stand around in the cold at Lafayette. Strange and unfortunate? Most likely, but it's what parietals and the harsh winters of Indiana drive us to. You'll learn to love it or leave it.

Finding Faith

By now you may be thinking, "Twisted social rituals, piles of homework, winter months without sunshine — what am I doing here?" Fear not. Whether you now call yourself a Belle or a Domer, you have picked the greatest school around. What sets these places apart is more than football games, parties or even an esteemed degree at the end of it all. It is the spirit of the place, the sense of community, the feeling of family that you'll hear about constantly during Freshman O. It's not just lip service — the faith that binds us together is tangible and real. Bon Jovi may not have put it as eloquently as others, but what other anthem can you scream so well at the top of your lungs? It's the perfect way to end a soundtrack to freshman year — "Take my hand and we'll make it I swear / Oh! Livin' on a prayer."

Contact Laura Kelly at LKelly@nd.edu

• Memory-making melodies