What gift do you think it will surprise your college student on the university graduation? Thanks for sharing.
A big hug and a sincere, “Well done, kiddo!”
We paid for his private HS and would have paid for (any) college had he not chosen a free one. That was gift enough in our books.
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My parents paid for flying lessons for me after I got out of college. That was an awesome gift!
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The gift of no loans
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Our gift to both kids was paying off their (small) federally funded direct loan. It was a surprise they didn’t expect.
We took them out to dinner too.
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The gift of no college debt. Really, i did not/do not think any big material gift is necessary.
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Want to add…we had promised our kids we would fully fund their undergrad educations. They both took out small Direct Loans…and our payment really finalized our commitment to funding their undergrad degrees. BUT they were both very surprised!
My son did an alternative spring break conservation trip to Saguaro National Park. I got him this framed poster.
On a more philosophical note, we gave him the gift of telling him he could choose any college without regard to cost. I was not given that choice so it was something I wanted my children to have. Since his freshman year was 20-21 we were fortunate that his college handled the pandemic in an amazing way, with a safe, in-person experience with Covid testing 3 times a week. Every elite school that he applied to and our state flagship were all remote.
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We got our daughter who was a nurse and going to work at a “ wear your own scrubs” hospital, an entire scrubs collection. It was from this pricy brand called Figs. When you order it has a fill in the blank category to check: I’m a ———— and choices like “doctor” “ nurse” “respiratory therapist” etc…. And then also,”purchaser for an actor on a medical show “. Lol. But actually my family friend is a costume designer on a medical show and she said they do buy Figs.
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A custom ring with a rare sapphire surrounded by a diamond halo in rose gold. Way prettier and treasured than a class ring that she didn’t want. Figure after this, the future hubby will take care of the jewelry.
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Won’t be a surprise but we are gifting s19 a new laptop and his diploma officially framed by the campus book store.
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I don’t believe we bought ShawSon a graduation present.
We did give ShawD a present but it was not a suprise. ShawD was in an accelerated BSN/MSN program that was pretty taxing. I knew that she was going to be tired after completing the BSN program and would be tempted to take a break after the BSN. I knew that she would like being a nurse but would love being a nurse practitioner and suggested strongly that she stick it out. She was exhausted in her last semester. Early in the semester, I purchased a ticket for her to go to Southeast Asia for three months after her exams. When she got the email with the ticket, she called me in tears gratitude. Later, she told me later that knowing she was going to Southeast Asia helped her get through the last part of her program.
Funny, I can’t 100% recall what we gave DS#1. But it wasn’t a surprise. As have shared before, his graduation and DS#2’s from HS were on the same morning… in different states. And it was right at DS#2’s birthday, so was a busy time full of gift giving. I believe older s wanted a new personal laptop he could configure. DS#2 wanted…. Our names off the shared accounts with the funds not needed for his undergrad education 
WOW! 3-months travelling for relaxing is a surprise. An idea may be $2024 cash, though.
I said it was not a surprise but what I meant was that I did not surprise her upon graduation.
This was a few months before graduation, but you are right @compiler, it was a huge surprise. The program ran in fall, spring and summer semesters and had a number of clinical courses that were demanding from a scheduling standpoint. She had really pushed herself graduated with a 3.95 GPA (or something like that), the school’s equivalent of summa cum laude, and really took learning seriously (at one point, she was almost baffled by some of her classmates who weren’t as serious – “If they have a burn victim and if they haven’t studied burns carefully, how will they know what degree the burn in order to deliver the right treatment for the victim.” She often had two or three jobs in addition to school even though we had fully funded a 529. We tried to get her to only have one job.
Fortunately, Southeast Asia was (and probably still is) a really inexpensive place to travel if you are a kid. I used FF miles to buy her ticket to SE Asia (I have millions of miles because my work can involve travel all over the world). She was staying in not the fanciest hotels and hostels – I think a big splurge for her was $18 a night for a room in a hotel in Northen Bali for a room overlooking a pool that overlooked the ocean – and I think $6 was more typical. She had to wait after taking her accreditation exams for her accreditation to be granted. She came back relaxed, volunteered for a month with the Red Cross in North Carolina in an area that had been badly hit in a hurricane, and then came home ready to get to work.
We took S and D out to eat and went on a nice family vacation—caught train to Seattle, explored the area, rented a car and drove to Ranier, stayed a few nights, Crater Lake, Reedsport OR (went fishing with my aunt on her boat), Redwood national park, SF, Sequoia national park and then back to LA and helped them move their stuff to storage. Also gave S a watch that was too wide for his wrist so took it back to costco.
We allowed both kids to graduate debt-free.
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