<p>I’d love to hear gift ideas for graduating college seniors. My S is graduating, does not have a job lined up but is looking for something as he tries to prepare to apply to medical school again next year. He’ll be taking an MCAT prep class that I am paying for this summer, but at this point we do not know if he will be moving back home or if he will find a job of some kind (with a biology major) where he can be supporting himself to some extent. </p>
<p>Any and all gift ideas will be greatly appreciated!!!</p>
<p>Mmmmm…probably not what you’re looking for but our gift to graduating college senior might be to allow him to return home, rent free for a short time and maybe pick up his stafford loan payments for a bit. </p>
<p>I bought our S a really cool watch with a mesh band from Costco–normally $60-120, on sale for $15. We’re also bringing him & D along on a family trip before he starts his full-time job in the fall. The trip is the real gift–for all of us :)</p>
<p>For health insurance, check to see if you can keep your child on the school policy as part of the group plan. If they can’t stay on that, see if there is some gap or alumni policy or Cobra they can get. For our S, his school insurance covers him until August. Thereafter, he has to pay for gap insurance @ $400+/month or buy alumni insurance for a similar rate. Cobra insurance would be a similar cost (if he qualified).</p>
<p>S can’t get Cobra any more from hubby’s policy, since we switched him to the school plan for this year, once he he aged off hubby’s policy at age 22. We would have started paying about $400/month. We opted to have him under the school policy until his workplace insurer kicks in, hopefully on or around August.</p>
<p>I hope things will be easier & clearer for D’s insurance. She is fortunately still covered under hubby’s policy.</p>
<p>We gave our recent college grad several gifts: a check suitable for down payment on a car (or full payment for a decent used car), a nice dinner with the family, health insurance coverage for the present, and limited comment on his questionable choices in home decor.</p>
<p>It’ll be nice to see him over the holidays this week - he’s half a continent away and I miss him.</p>
<p>Son will get a pair of monogrammed titanium cuff links (he does have/wear shirts with French cuffs). That was going to be it, but now we will also be providing airfare to China for a trip he is planning.</p>
<p>DS is still looking for a job so at the moment may be living at home after May. If he finds a job in a different city I was thinking of a Garmin, or maybe a smart phone (currently he’s under our family plan with an old Razr). Another potential if he ends up in an apartment is a TV. We could offer him a trip but not sure where he’d want to go on his own. He’s been talking of getting a new laptop for two years so might actually do that; he’s got a 21st birthday gift IOU from us for part of the price. No loans and he can get health insurance via Cobra from my coverage; if he’s still unemployed in September :eek: doesn’t he get to go back to regular child coverage (six months after the bill was signed)?</p>
<p>I ordered DS a frame for his diploma from his school’s bookstore. It already came. It looks really nice and has his school’s name embossed in gold on the matt. I’m not sure what, if anything, else he’ll get from DH & I. We’ll go out for a nice dinner. He’s plannng to go to grad school but hasn’t received any funding yet. We may end up having to help with some of the cost. Something we definitely hadn’t planned on.</p>
<p>How about a nice suit? or a blue blazer? … school watch… Bose iPod dock… iPad… school chair? those are some things a guy might use… and keep long term…</p>
<p>just reread your post… saw the med school aspirations… how about a stethoscope?</p>
<p>re health insurance
Would recommend watchful waiting and being prepared to add kid to your COBRA if things don’t set up as quickly as expected for having our young college grads covered by our policies. It may take some time for things to get sorted out and gaps in medical coverage can be quite costly.</p>
<p>We bought D a start on a wardrobe for work. We went through her college wardrobe to see what pieces she had that would be appropriate for the workplace and it was like a segment on What Not to Wear…she had maybe one shirt that Stacy and Clinton would not have thrown away! :eek:</p>
<p>Sounds like my S’s last day at home before he started his East Coast internship.</p>
<p>S: Mom, can we do some shopping? (from the child who has to be dragged to buy anything)
Me: Ummm, were you thinking today, as you’re flying out early tomorrow morning?
S: Yea, now would be good.
Me: What did you have in mind?
S: Some dress shirts–I don’t have ANY that fit (he was correct–even the one he wore to his HS graduation didn’t fit properly & never did).</p>
<p>We did a whirlwind shopping tour, hitting about 10 stores and buying about a dozen shirts. That night, S packed half and asked me to please return the other 1/2. He did wear those clothes all summer (long sleeved dress shirts).</p>
<p>Yes, many of our kids don’t have much of a “work” wardrobe.</p>
<p>Thinking about getting D1 lasik as a graduation gift. She’ll be off to Africa for the Peace Corps for 2 years and I don’t think she’ll want to mess with contact lenses.</p>
<p>I think there are warnings and restrictions about having lasik at too young an age (at least there were before), so you might want to check that out thoroughly before going down that path. My brother’s an ophthamologist & was cautioning my niece about this, as she was interested as well.</p>
<p>Also, your kiddo will have to report that Lasik surgery to the Peace Corps…they want updated info for any medical procedures done. Our kiddo also has a PC application pending and she had the vision section completed by the eye doc…if she showed up without glasses, they would KNOW something was up.</p>
<p>I have to say…I think the Lasik surgery is a great idea…my kids would both love to ditch their contacts/glasses. It’s an idea I wouldn’t have thought of!! BUT they are happier to have the money go towards payment of their college loans too.</p>
<p>I was planning on COBRA between graduation and job start, as well. Then I looked at the cost of short term medical insurance. It is about 25% of the cost of COBRA coverage.</p>
Something we definitely hadn’t planned on.</p>