…my baby girl, age 21, is graduating this weekend! Could you all please give me some suggestions as to what a nice gift would be? What presents have you given that went over well? In the moderate price range - about $100? She has the electronic doo-dads. Is a digital picture frame a good idea? Jewlery? She will be living at home for the summer (and hopefully getting a summer job or internship). Thank you for any suggestions.
Moved thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
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Gfactor**
General Questions Moderator
Depends, is she going to be job hunting, or getting ready to do graduate school?
Or you could get really forward thinking and get her a $100 savings bond =) Start planning for retirement now!
If job hunting, a nice leather attache/shoulderbag is nice thing to have. Something like this, in one of the um, more conservative colors provided.
I just got the detachable rolley-bag version, from my inlaws for gradumacatin’ law school (in black), and it is sweet.
Cash. Seriously. I know you can’t “wrap” it, but it’s the most useful gift a new college grad can get.
I was just at a quaint little shop and asked one of the clerks two questions 1) What would be a good gift to capture the essence of my town, if one were to bring a gift from home to friends in Japan, and 2) what’s a good graduation present.
Her ideas were to get a t-shirt with our city’s name on it and a “congratulations graduate” card. 
If she doesn’t have a large professional wardrobe, a gift certificate to a store with professional clothes would be very practical if not sentimental.
Jewelry seems fine but is more of a sentimental thing - which is certainly not necessarily good or bad. Maybe a watch? I think college graduation presents should err on the side of practical, personally.
Or some type of leather good, like a wallet or business card holder or professional datebook (if she’s the type to not use a smartphone or PDA), or a leather portfolio. I’m young and use a leather portfolio all the time but I seem to be in the minority. I would suggest not trying to get a briefcase or attache case for $100.
“Home” gifts can also be great, but maybe not if she’s going to be living at home for a while.
I don’t care for those digital picture frames at all, but that’s just me. I guess it’d be a nice gift for people who like them.
On the other hand some of my favorite gifts ever have been pictures of me with friends or family that they took the time to frame nicely. Although that may be because I’m a man and while I appreciate having pictures of my friends and family I’m not likely to bother actually doing it.
I’m a fan of my Digital Picture Frame actually, though I just got another one from an Aunt who thought I’d like it. That’s fine for me though, as most of my college memories are photos on my computer, so the Photo frame is a nice way to keep them around in my place right now.
Otherwise cash is always nice too sure.
A membership to the Dope maybe? It’s always good to have resources to ask questions and such for advice, but that’s not really a “gift” but it’s worth a mention for her.
What’s she going to be do doing now? Something that would help with that transition is always nice.
I’m not sure how much they are, but my parents got me a rolling carry-on luggage thing when I graduated college. At the time I thought it was stupid. 7 years later, that thing is invaluable to me, and has gotten so much usage, it more than paid for itself.
ETA: I got a digital photo frame for Christmas, and it is still in it’s box. Something like that will really just depend on the person.
Cash or a gift card to a nice clothing store. I know I didn’t have nice clothes for work when I graduated.
(I think cash is the best idea, myself. ) Thanks for the suggestions. Everything is so up in the air right now. She isn’t ready to go out looking for a ‘real’ job yet. She doesn’t even have her drivers license yet, so maybe some driving lessons would be good. I have to be practical, we are not exactly rolling in dough here. We wanted to give her a little something to mark the occasion. I love hearing suggestions, I myself have always given cash to graduates, but I wondered if there are any interesting/useful openable presents young women like to get.
My husband and I got our daughter a nice, conservative, businesslike-but-feminine briefcase in Boring Brown (as opposed to a fashion color) when she got her Bachelor’s degree. We spent more than $100 on it, though…I think it was more like $500. On previous graduations (high school and community college) she received a Leatherman multitool and cash. She really, really liked the cash.
She was looking for a professional job, so she really liked the briefcase, and I believe she still uses it every day. She would have been delighted with cash, too.
Driving lessons are not a bad idea, either. If she’s going to be living somewhere where there’s not a lot of public transportation, she’ll need to know how to drive. Heck, she needs to know how to drive anyway, assuming you’re in the US.
How about a nicely framed two piece photo - first day of kindergarten one side, graduation day the other?
Or maybe first report card nicely framed
Get her degree nicely framed for her
Was getting into college hard? - If so maybe her acceptance letter might be nice.
I would try to go for something sappy and sentimental if you can…rather than practical.
But maybe a really nice pen with graduation date inscribed? This will last ages, but for a good pen you may need to pay more than $100
I was able to get a nice discount on my insurance by proving I’d taken a complete driving course. It more than paid for itself.
It’s more than $100 but a Mont Blanc pen is a great graduation gift.
Knowing she doesn’t drive yet, I say the driving lessons, unless that is something that you would be paying for anyway. Because otherwise she is going to need to save up for the driving lessons on her own while working a job she can get without driving. That will be just one more hurdle holding her back. While at her age she probably can get a license without taking the class, if she really doesn’t know how to drive, are you actually comfortable teaching her from scratch? That has “tense family incident” written all over it. Driving lessons will be more than $100, though.
If the driving lessons are out for some reason, I’d go with the leather portfolio or nice watch. Those are two simple things that really help make a good impression at even an entry-level job interview.
My folks bought me a Remington Model 7 .300 Winchester Short Magnum with a fluted barrel and a camouflage stock. My uncle bought me a Taurus Tracker in .44 Magnum.
Even though I really like hunting and shooting there’s no way I could have justified spending money on guns right after college, I’m still saving every dollar I make.
My point is, lots of people graduate college with a lot of debt not to mention the possible expense of grad school or further career training. Getting her something practical is all well and good but it could be a long time before she feels like she can spend money for enjoyment.
I’d get her something fun that she can’t or won’t buy on her own at this point in her life. What is she into?
On the other hand, I cannot conceive of being that old and not having a driver’s license. I’m sure she’d appreciate it if you just helped her offset that cost.
Edit - Is there something sentimental you could hand down to her now? If presented the right way a hand-me-down can become a treasured possession.
Well, she’s had years of experience driving with a permit, but just around town, not on the highway-I would like her to take a few lessons for more advanced driving than going to the grocery store. She never got her license because she went off to college when she was 17, didn’t need a car there (where it snows so much cars in the parking lots are literally buried up to the roofs). I will definitely see that she has some driving lessons!
She’s very much a save-the-planet, feed-the-hungry, Humane Society/treehugger type, maybe I can find some nice earrings or a hand printed scarf in the little international gifts shop at the mall.
If not, I suppose I could wrap up and hand over her deceased grandmother’s sapphire ring!
Wow, those are all really good ideas. I’m sure she’ll be happy with any of those. Congratulations, you raised a college graduate, pretty cool man!
Thank you all for your suggestions. The Dope has the best contributors in the world!
A nice string of pearls - they’ll have to be cultured if you only want to spend $100, but they’ll be nice anyway. That is truly a classic, have forever kind of gift.