BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 19 — By move-in day this weekend, the freshman class at Virginia Tech already knew a few of the ropes. Packed into the bleachers of Cassell Coliseum in their orange and maroon T-shirts on Saturday night, they began to jump up and down in unison at the opening chords of “Enter Sandman,” the Metallica anthem. At the sound of “Hokie Hokie Hokie, Hi!” they joined in with the 111-year-old nonsense cheer that gave the university mascot its name.

But Seth Greenberg, the men’s basketball coach, had something more to tell them.

“After the tragedy of 4/16 last year, you saw the best of the Virginia Tech students,” he said, pacing the floor of the basketball court. “Their ownership, their passion, their commitment to their university was second to none. They love this school. They believe in this school. And that’s the pride that you have to take each and every day as you walk across this campus.”

As students return to classes here Monday, just four months after the country’s deadliest shooting rampage took 33 lives and devastated the campus, Virginia Tech is walking a fine line between remembering and moving on. It must welcome eager freshmen while embracing faculty members and students who are grieving and, in some cases, still recovering from physical injuries.

Before freshman orientation in July, the student center was stripped of the banners, gifts and cards that poured in after the shooting. But on Sunday afternoon, the central event was the dedication of a memorial to the victims in the symbolic heart of the campus, the Drillfield.

T-shirts proclaiming “We are Virginia Tech,” the rallying cry taken from the poem written by Nikki Giovanni after the shooting, are everywhere on campus. But in an effort to avoid being defined solely by tragedy, the university has not permitted merchandise that juxtapose the date April 16 with the university’s name or trademarks.

Like Coach Greenberg, many officials have tried to emphasize the grace of the campus response, an approach that resonates both with those who lived through the crisis and those who watched it on television. Although the shooting occurred two weeks before tuition deposits were due, Virginia Tech saw no decline in the percentage of students accepting its admission offers. And of the 25 students injured in the shooting, 19 will be returning to classes this fall, said Mark Owczarski, a university spokesman.

Kim Bereznak, a freshman, had already decided to accept Virginia Tech’s offer before the shooting, but what she saw afterward reinforced her decision. “It made me proud, personally, just how strong everyone was,” she said. “They could have turned their back on their school, but they didn’t.”

Returning students voiced some apprehension, but said they were more relieved to end a summer of intrusive questions from people back home.

“It’s to the point where you just want to go be in Blacksburg, be with the Hokies, be with your family,” said Robert Bowman, a senior and the president of the Hokie Ambassadors, who lead campus tours. Still, he added, there is a craving for normalcy. “By tomorrow there will be more students complaining about their chemistry professor than talking about April 16. We will be back.”

If questions from outsiders can be jarring, the rampage is still a frequent topic of conversation among friends, said Grant Duncan, a sophomore. “It’s good to continue to talk about it,” he said. “It definitely just helps the healing process.”

Derek O’Dell, 20, who was shot in the arm as he tried to bar the student gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, from his classroom, said he was thrilled to be back despite having anxiety attacks. “I don’t really know how well I’ll be able to concentrate, but I definitely want to be back here,” he said. “The Hokie Nation, being back here now, it’s even more of a sense of belonging.”

In a letter about the news media presence expected on campus this week, Lawrence G. Hincker, the vice president for university relations, told students to feel free to decline any interview. “Should you engage a reporter,” he wrote, “take advantage of the opportunity to share some Hokie spirit. The world mourned with us and maintains an interest in the collective health of our extended university community.”

Rick Sparks Jr., the director of orientation, said that when the student orientation leaders arrived, he was prepared to spend hours talking through the trauma. But that was not necessary. “They were anxious about getting questions,” he said, “but other than that they were ready to do their jobs.”

The banners and other gifts were removed from the student center, he said, because they might have overwhelmed newcomers. Freshmen and their parents were offered a session where the campus police answered questions about the shooting and security, but very few attended, Mr. Sparks said.

New security measures include an emergency text-messaging system for student cellphones and 24-hour locks at residence halls. New locks have also been installed on classroom doors, and door handles on classroom buildings will be harder to chain shut, as Mr. Cho did before the shooting.

Susanna Rinehart, a theater professor, said she would wait to see her students’ mood before deciding how to discuss the shooting.

“It’s so hard to say what it feels like to be a faculty member here right now,” said Ms. Rinehart, whose first class on Monday, an arts survey, will have more than 500 students from all majors. “We all, I think, just feel this sort of inner shakiness, this sort of not knowing what it’s going to feel like, and knowing that we can’t know.”