<p>Not really a "gift" but a godd idea for staying organized</p>
<p>I found the flash drive/key ring/swiss type tool for under $30 at Target, if anyone else is looking for those. It's a 256 MB.</p>
<p>I found these things on overstock.com ... they are called Miss A Kits (or something like that) and its like a swiss army knife, but more geared towards girls. It has a little mirror, a nail file, a knife, flashlight, and a ton of other things. It seemed like a really cute and useful idea, so i ordered them for all of my friends (well the ones that are girls anyways) for graduation. The best part is that they are like $13.99 so its a good price on that website. I think that they are great for friends for their graduations b/c they are useful and the price is right too.</p>
<p>I'm new here and found this thread to be so informative! Thanks..
I'm known for making lists, but now I've started a notebook divided into categories so when I start shopping or people ask what's a good gift idea I will go straight to my notebook. Thanks again!</p>
<p>Daughter heading off to Sacred Heart University...class of 2010</p>
<p>I got a pen.</p>
<p>A lousy stinkin' pen.</p>
<p>Yet I used it, so I guess it was useful.</p>
<p>UCLAri, or other students:
What sort of gifts would you LIKE to receive? (I am asking this question seriously, not as a judgement on your pen opinion). Do you prefer a memento, a useful gift, or money?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
I found the flash drive/key ring/swiss type tool for under $30 at Target, if anyone else is looking for those. It's a 256 MB.
[/QUOTE]
Great idea!</p>
<p>My student workers use these things all the time. Those without printers in their rooms use them to take papers to the lab to print, though they can be used for MP3 trading and photos.</p>
<p>One of my student workers got me out of a bind with one of these things when I was trying to get some ancient computers (no CD drives) to work with a certain report I created.</p>
<p>A suggestion: see what cafes and restaurants are in the neighborhood around the student's campus and get some giftcards. In Charlottesville, there's a group called "the off campus meal plan" with cards that work at all the neighborhood spots. It seems to work everywhere on "The Corner", from the smoothie place to the pizza parlor and the deli.</p>
<p>I remember having a similar program in Boston and Providence (where I went to college & grad school), so it's probably something you can find in most college towns.</p>
<p>
[quote]
UCLAri, or other students:
What sort of gifts would you LIKE to receive? (I am asking this question seriously, not as a judgement on your pen opinion). Do you prefer a memento, a useful gift, or money?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At this point in my life? Probably either a nice dress shirt or dress clothes (NO TIES) or maybe a nice wallet.</p>
<p>But my next graduation is from grad school, so my tastes are a bit different. In high school, all I wanted was money. </p>
<p>Oh, a nice cigar would also make me happy, but I doubt the family would really want to support that.</p>
<p>I found the collegiate usb flash drives for $19.99 each at
<a href="http://www.pny.com/products/flash/collegeUSB.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.pny.com/products/flash/collegeUSB.asp</a></p>
<p>Thanks for all the great ideas from this thread! I have my gift baskets all ready for this weekend's parties thanks to all of you. Besides the Naked Roommate book, I found a few others that were appropriate girl gifts-101 things a college girl should know and a girls guide to college-making the best of your 4 years. Here is a link to amazon for them, but you can get them at many places/sites:<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0836210905/sr=8-2/qid=1147900589/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5938542-7343913?%5Fencoding=UTF8%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0836210905/sr=8-2/qid=1147900589/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5938542-7343913?%5Fencoding=UTF8</a>
Also I used some candid photos of my son with the kids that are receiving these gifts and got a cute (remember these are for girls, cute is OK!) friends type decorative frame and used that as part of the gift as well. Also I put all of the gift bags together in a mess/wire type basket as the holder and then wrapped them in clear cello bag wrap. I found some $3-$4 wire/mesh baskets at places like Gormans/Marshalls/TJ Maxx that worked great! Each
basket was less than $20 each but filled with lots of goodies (also put some cute sticky notes and small package of note cards)</p>
<p>my son's open house is this weekend! for a different decorating idea, i have accumulated over 1,000 prints of the activities of the past year--golf meets, football games, basketball, girls volleyball, girls basketball, homecoming, parade, coronation, baseball, track, group snapshots, whatever--i take pictures of everyone and everything. anyhow, i am going to spread the different prints over all the table tops--with a card saying something like "take my memories with you" kind of thing. </p>
<p>in addition, i am putting together picture gift bags--i have a few excellent shots of the kids in action, and i will make them a nice group of framed shots. inexpensive, but i think (having done this for about 3 or 4 years now) that some of these pictures are as appreciated as a gift certificate!</p>
<p>I'm graduating from high school next year, and in reguards to the person who asked what we would like to recieve, I know that if I could pick any gift (assuming price is not included) I would want a labtop. Their practical and useful for college, but something anyone would want, really. Help paying for a trip is also a popular "I would like that" gift among the kids at my school. However, after reading all of these posts: the person who gave the four "tool kits" seems like an excellent idea!! I wouldn't have thought of it or even asked for it, but it's definatly practical and needed! A great way to kill two birds w/ one stone.</p>
<p>Also, nice mentions that I heard were gift cards to places near by. When your first getting started, I could only imagine the relief of not having to buy all of the minor things that you take for granted in your everyday life that is a must (i.e. things to put furniture together, toothpaste, soap, batteries, lamps etc. etc.) And, as always, money is never un-wanted. Hope this helped!</p>
<p>ps. Quilts are amazing! However, I don't think too many moms would think of that. I would like one, I know that.</p>
<p>bumpbumpbump</p>
<p>My wife is nuts about quilting and has put together a number of 'graduation' quilts for others. The quilts usually consist of the recipients old T-Shirts that had events they attended or groups they were involved in as well as photographs that she transfers to fabric highlighting the person's high school or K-12 years. They really can turn out quite nicely and become items with a lot of sentimental value. Another thing she's done is to create a themed quilt for the person based on their interests.</p>
<p>Great ideas! One more to add - we're thinking of paying for our son's gas for the summer and maybe the school year (don't know if he can take his car to school yet). It's not exactly inexpensive, but can be paid off in installments!</p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>I think my D/we had about 20 parties to attend and I see these gifts in categories. Our closest family friends/nephews/ and her best friend or two - I will give money to the boys and to the girls I ordered the cute computer bag from Timbuk2 . The friends in the next category who are pretty close - an oversized towel and a popup hamper. The kids who are more casual friends/teammates I found a cute screwdriver (six different inserts) at Sears with a flower handle for $3.95 and stuck that and a lottery ticket in a bag. As for D, her laptop will be her gift. She turns 18 in two weeks so this has been a very $$$ month with the party and all of these gifts.</p>
<p>Also, last year I ordered the hot pink tool kits from Lilian Vernon for about $10. [D goes to an all girls' school.] At graduation a number last year's girls said they used them a lot. They aren't that well made but they do the job for hanging things.</p>
<p>I hadn't even thought about gifts for friends - our graduating senior is our oldest, so we haven't gone through this before (of course I did 32 years ago, but who remembers?!) Do most people give gifts to friends of their children? Is the gift from the family or from the child?</p>
<p>I suspect that it differs from school to school. D attends a small girls' school and the families and girls are very close. Some girls give cards, some gifts, just depends. I helped out with a few extra curricular programs so I feel particularly close to a number of the girls and families.</p>
<p>I don't think it's routine to give gifts to the friends of the children (they don't being called that anymore!) - usually it's just relatives. I'd say, let your child decide if they want to give their friend a gift and it'll be up to them to do it and hopefully keep it reasonable.</p>
<p>My youngest just graduated HS a couple of days ago and her friend's mother did pass out gifts to his friends. It was what I thought was an inexpensive and cool gift. They made a candy bar wrapper that appeared to be genuine but had their son's picture on it and had various 'ingredients' stated along with other sayings. They wrapped it around a normal chocolate bar and handed them out. Inexpensive, thoughtful, a novelty, can be easily made on a home printer, and it tasted good (so says my daughter who received it)!</p>