<p>What sort of gift might you be giving to your graduating seniors?</p>
<p>And what sort of gift would you recommend to give to the kids of close friends?</p>
<p>Obviously what may be needed most is $$$, so for both of the above areas I’d be interested in knowing what levels might be appropriate.</p>
<p>I think the showing up to my graduation is gift enough for me :)</p>
<p>I bought a new car during October of Senior year and my gift was that my parents gave me an extra $500 to put towards my down payment. Which I thought was a great idea since it helped to lower my monthly payments during school, and it was less money I had to pay interest on… and to this day I still can’t believe they gave me that much money for my gift… I really wasn’t expecting anything.</p>
<p>S was fortunate to have a job waiting for him upon graduation. So for graduation, I took him shopping to replace his college wardrobe with a professional one. One new suit, dress shirts, a few ties, dress pants, dress shoes, and a classy overcoat.</p>
<p>Haven’t had many “friends” graduate in recent years. Some more distant folks that sent graduation announcements got $20 from us inside a card - about the minimum I would be comfortable sending anyone. S’s gifts from close relatives tended to range from about $100 to $250. (Grandparents gave more, I believe, but I didn’t really keep track, nor was I privvy to everything.)</p>
<p>For neighbors and friends of our kids, we give graduation “year” checks. This year we will make out checks for $20.07. The kids always get a big kick out of it.</p>
<p>Good question and one that we have been wrestling with. When I graduated my parents gave me a very nice, expensive and unique (for the time) leather chair. I still sit in that chair every night and I always remember it as my graduation gift.</p>
<p>I would like to give my son something similar that he will have for many years, but I can’t come up with a good idea (a chair is not really practical since he is going directly on to grad school and may be involved with several moves before he “settles” down. I wouldn’t want to saddle him with yet another big thing to worry about moving.) So, for now, I think I will buy him a 24 inch LCD monitor for his computer. Besides the huge screen real estate for his normal computing needs, he uses his PC for watching DVDs. A large screen will allow him to watch from a greater distance and with friends. When he gets his MS, I’ll think about a more long-life gift.</p>
<p>My parents got me a Palm Pilot for my BS graduation. I only used it for a few months and sold it back to them 
(my Dad’s umteen millionth one had just died). </p>
<p>For my MS, I got a whole lotta nothing! They came to my thesis defense and took me out to dinner afterwards (with a few margaritas). Oh yeah, and gave me a real bed to sleep in the night before my defense (I had moved out of town a month earlier and had been living on my friend’s couch, so they let me stay in their hotel room).</p>
<p>I expect big things for PhD (assuming I pass my qualifying exam on Thursday…)! ;)</p>
<p>fundingfather;</p>
<p>We got S a bronze sculpture of Rodin’s “Thinking man” for his desk when he graduated from high school. We had it engraved with his graduation date and a special note.</p>
<p>I think we got it at the Boston Museum store and had them put the engraving on a small plate that could be adhered to the base of the statue. He loved it, and has it with him at college. It is something he can keep after college to always remember as a graduation gift from Dad and Mom. </p>
<p>I can’t find the exact model we got with a quick google, but it is something like this.
<a href=“http://www.onlinediscountmart.com/68-b158.html[/url]”>http://www.onlinediscountmart.com/68-b158.html</a></p>
<p>I think I’d like to figure out a way to give a trip of some kind. However, how can I do that…an airline gift card might not work because there are so many airline options once she’d actually book it.</p>
<p>I don’t want to give just “cash” because I’m afraid the money would get spent elsewhere first…any ideas on this?</p>
<p>some people give gift cards for things
The same month D graduated she also turned 24 & her sister turned 16 ( and her dad turned 51)
I gave her an ipod & something else- I can’t even remember
I had bought her a bike recently ( from a yard sale) and bought the DVD from graduation as well as the mug with all the names painted ( in tiny tiny lettering)
When she turned 18 however- I gave her a silver bracelet that my mother had given me when I was 18. ( about the only thing she ever gave me that I still have) I also gave a silver locket that my H gave me to my younger D, noting that I still will have access to it, but that I wanted her to have it- as she wore it more than I did.
( That is about the extent of my jewelry collection)</p>
<p>I like to give events-
a dinner- or tickets for entertainment.
which reminds me- I have some birthdays coming up pretty quick!</p>
<p>For the son of a close friend, I plan to get a gift card to BB&B – he has a job waiting for him, and will be furnishing an apartment. In fact I just ran the idea past his mom, and she thought it was “perfect” – or was she just being polite? :)</p>
<p>My d. just graduated last weekend. We bought her a ring to add to the one we got her when she turned 21. I’m not sure what they are called–they are thinnish bands with small stones and are stacked together–come with different stone options.</p>
<p>When my oldest son graduated, we gave him a nice watch.</p>
<p>For friends’ children, I usually do a check.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>curioser- we felt the same way. On winter break, we suggested that our D think about where she might like to go, and with whom. A couple of her friends were also wanting to go somewhere after graduation. After checking it out and thinking about it, she and her best friend from high school decided they would take a trip together. They looked at Europe and Asia - decided on China as her friend has family there. Part of the trip they will tour, and part they will stay with her friend’s family. Both girls will be coming home to very intensive grad programs and probably won’t have a chance (or the funds)to do “fun” travel - not related to their work- for quite a while. We feel fortunate that she was able to arrange something we are happy to support.</p>
<p>ASAP,
Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely discuss with D in that time frame.
She tends to be rather indecisive but if she has enough time and can find a friend to do it with, maybe it will come together better.</p>
<p>D will likewise be headed off to grad school, so fitting a trip in before 3 more intensive years would be a wonderful gift, I think. She’s been bit with the travel bug (is currently doing study abroad) so I believe this will be of great appeal to her.</p>
<p>If anyone has any more suggestions for helping to get a trip together, I’d love to hear them…</p>
<p>I’m giving DS a Big Check as a graudation from college gift. He will be moving to a new city, finding an apartment, needing a security deposit, etc., so he’ll use it for that. I will also make my usual point that he should put a substantial portion of it into his investment account, which contains his Bar Mitzvah money, so that when he needs to buy a car, a house, whatever, he has the start of something.</p>
<p>I will also be giving him a piece of jewelry that was his grandfathers.</p>
<p>And sokkermom, I LOVE “The Thinker” as an idea!!</p>
<p>Paying off his Stafford Loans so that he can start “with a clean slate.”</p>
<p>My son is treating himself to a big screen tv of some sort. He will receive his Masters next week and will hopefully be heading to medical school. He is a big tv watcher and wants to use some of his saved money for a tv. Dad and I will be helping with the furniture, gathering up leftovers from relatives houses as well as a few new pieces.</p>
<p>S will get his college tuition, laptop, dorm extras (TV, fridge, microwave…sheesh, when I think of the bare institutional-green room I lived in <em>very happily</em> post HS…) from us, but I’m also having his great-grandfather’s gold pocket watch engraved as a graduation gift.</p>
<p>From everyone else, I think it’s money he’ll appreciate the most…</p>
<p>well there are some advantages to not being able to live lavishly before college- D is living post college in a house that has been made into a duplex- so cut up, that they dont even have a living room- instead just a hall/landing- 2 bedrooms- bath, kitchen and a converted attic that houses a third roommate.</p>
<p>However- she hasnt yet asked for any money- even though she has loans and is freelancing as a copyeditor instead of working fulltime.It also is in a great neighborhood- which my younger daughter often comments on ;)</p>
<p>I think it is great to be able to pay off their loans for them though-I wish we could afford it.</p>
<p>( oh- one disadvantage of D living in such a small place- I havent been able to * gift* her with any of the furniture I have been hanging onto for that purpose!)</p>
<p>Using Marriott points we are sending him and a friend of his to Europe for 10 days including airfare and some nights in hotels in London and Amsterdam. We also gave him cash. My wife is in LA today and he has asked her to take him clothes shopping at the Beverly Center. I’m guessing it wouldn’t be at Old Navy.</p>
<p>THIS IS PEANUTS COMPARED TO A YEAR’S COST AT USC, WHICH I DO NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYMORE. YEA FOR US!!!</p>