All I Want for Christmas Is ... [Admissions-Friendly Holiday Gift Ideas]

[Dave_Berry]

pink001, congratulations on your initiative and maturity in handling your college process. What college-related gifts would YOU like this year? Next year this time, you'll be a college student!

[soozievt]

pink, congratulations on your fantastic admissions outcome and all your initiative to get to this point. Well done.

I agree with you that throwing in college directories and related stuff as ONE of the gifts should be welcome for a junior in high school along with other "funner" gifts. As I wrote up thread, when my D turned 16 and it was also the start of her junior year, the college books were one of her birthday presents and she welcomed them but they were not her ONLY present. Thus, I can't quite understand how some think these make bad XMas gifts, since most kids get more than one gift at the holidays from various people.

[Fastfood15]

I know it's probably a bit expensive for the average present, but a laptop is a must. Thankfully I have benefited from a laptop all through high school. Don't ask me how i convinced my parents to spring for that one...

[caelae]

To me, prep books and school supplies aren't something that are "gifts," because they're cheap(ish) and readily available throughout the year. They're something that, when you need them, you go out and buy them. Therefore, you might gently suggest that your junior (or if you're the junior in question) go out and get some things for themselves, but don't wrap them and put them under the tree or make a big deal out of presenting them. Maybe you could just leave some on their desk around the holidays?

As for Christmas gifts that are very good, clothes, electronics, gift cards, money, books, movies, tastes vary, etc.

[HImom]

Something that my S has found very handy is the ultralight notebooks (<3 lbs). He carries them arround to his college classes & uses them to read his texts on-line. He keeps his full-size laptop at his apartment. Some of the ultralights are now around $300 & it could be easily used in HS & help with college apps. That could be a cool present that would be available to take to college as well.

[GregoryHouse]

I've bought (and collected from friends) a gargantuan number of SAT1 and SAT2 books, so I'm planning on donating them to the library. Hopefully some kid will see them as a generous, fortunate Christmas present

[pink001]

Thank you Dave_Berry and soozievt! I was so excited when I found out, because no one from my family had ever gone to college and no one from my high school and ever been accepted to an Ivy League before, so everyone I knew was pretty much thrilled.

However, it's tougher when no one has much advice for you. Books can help a lot, because even if your parents did go to college, the college admissions process is always changing and always becoming more competitive so it's different for each generation of applicants.

And whoever said these books are "cheap(ish)" isn't really thinking about the big picture. Sure, they may cost $20-30 each (which isn't cheap to me), but think of how we might need! At lease one for the ACT or SAT I, one for each SAT II subject test they're taking (competitive colleges can require three), one for the whole application process, and maybe a Princeton review on the nation's best colleges if your child is undecided, or even one for tips on writing college essays. I mean, the books can rack up a lot of cash!

The best thing to do is throw some of these books in amidst the normal, fun presents. Unless you have a really bratty kid, most of us won't mind and will even be thankful. Because no matter how stressful the college process is, it still reminds us that we're taking the next exciting step in our lives! We don't completely hate it... we might even like it a little.

P.S. Dave_Berry, I've convinced my mom to spring for a Sony Vaio laptop in Cosmopolitan Pink. I know it's expensive, but everybody needs one when they go off to college (and pink's my favorite color!), and since my mom's all excited that I got accepted into Yale she's temporarily delusional and told me that I could get whichever laptop I wanted.

[hakuna_matata]

^ lol temporarily delusional. congratulations!!

[326qbbsm]

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is the chance to attend New York University, Leonard Stern School of Business. Thank you in advance.

Yours truly,
***** ****

[bluewatermelon]

i'd love my parents to write me a rejection letter on dec 15th, then wrap up my real acceptance letter as a wonderful christmas present

[Fastfood15]

if that happened then I wouldn't be able to go to college. Unless the school i get into has correspondence courses with prisons.

[hakuna_matata]

bluewatermelon - wow, i'd hate to be your kid in the future :-p

[jmds]

bluewatermelon, that would be pretty cruel...but at the same time, imagine the thrill when you open the box!

Parents, as a student, please don't give your kid anything admissions related. We're already stressed enough, give them fun stuff.

Although all I want for Christmas is an acceptance letter from my ED school!

[redginnibenly]

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Sorry for offtopic.