Indie songstress Ingrid Michaelson has a lot more in common with you than you might think. She loves Dickinson Dining Hall, the thought of ordering late night food from 7-SNAX, Justin Timberlake and shopping at the Oakdale Mall. Yup, Michaelson was once a Binghamton University student.

A musical theater major, former Binghamtonic and graduate of the class of 2001, Michaelson received tremendous amounts of airplay this past winter when her hit song “The Way I Am,” from her album “Girls and Boys,” appeared in Old Navy holiday commercials, as well as other songs getting airtime on several MTV shows and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Now the singer is returning to campus for the first time as a performer. Michaelson will take the stage along with Ben Lee in the Anderson Center at 8 p.m. on Aug. 26. Tickets for students are $17 for indoor seating and $10 for lawn seats. She said returning to BU as a performer never crossed her mind while she was a student.

“I never even considered that idea,” she said. “But once I started performing and I was doing college shows I thought to myself, ‘I should go to Binghamton!’ It’s going to be very surreal. I’ve only been back once since I graduated and that was, like, three years ago … I feel really old!”

While she is there to perform, Michaelson said she’s ready to hit up all of her old haunts like Lost Dog Caf√É.√© and Whole in the Wall restaurant.

“I just kind of want to walk around campus,” she said. “I hear there are a lot of changes. I want to find my professors. That pretty much sums it up: eating and going to campus.”

Michaelson said BU would naturally find its way into her music because it was a huge part of her life. But she said she didn’t start writing songs with BU in mind. Its inclusion in her song “The Hat” just happened to fit.

“I have a very warm spot in my heart for Binghamton, so it’s bound to turn up in something of mine that I make. I didn’t actively think I had to write a song about Binghamton, but the song I wrote was about a boy that I dated in Binghamton,” she laughed. “So it just made sense to talk about it.”

But Michaelson said there is one thing she does not miss about BU. The worms.

“When it rained the worms come out and everything had the worm smell. I hated that, I fucking hated it,” she laughed. “It grossed me out so much along with the smell, it was disgusting. That I don’t miss.”

Needless to say, Michaelson has come a long way since living in the halls of Digman and Rafuse of Dickinson Community. Having her song appear in the Old Navy commercials put her on the map and Michaelson said it was a very crazy time, but she said she’s not ready to change her tune in order to achieve mainstream success.

“Ultimately, it’s not where I set my sights. I think it would be awesome and I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not going to change anything that I do to achieve it,” she said. “Some musicians don’t even really want it, they kind of want to retain the indie cred. I’d love for everyone to know me, but I’m not going to compromise anything to reach that.”

Besides it being a welcome walk down memory lane, Michaelson has a show to do, and she said she’s nervous.

“I’m really afraid. I remember the Anderson Center. Maybe I remember it being really, really large just because I wasn’t used to big venues at that point,” she said. “I just hope it’s not like 30 people and like one of my old professors.”