Some of you may be asking why a laptop and not a desktop.  Today's student requires the mobility offered by a laptop.  Though laptops are usually more expensive than desktops the additional expense is necessary.  At time college students are taking notes right on their laptops in class.  You can't carry around a desktop.

One big factor to consider when buying the laptop is the college or university that they will be attending.  You need to find out what the requirements are and what software they recommend.  You don't want to buy a PC Windows based computer only to find that a Macintosh computer is required.  Many graphic and art schools rely on Apples versus PCs.

This leads us to the question of when you should buy the laptop.  If you can get the requirements for the institution your grad will be attending I personally think the sooner the better.  That can be as early as graduation.  The main reason for this is that every computer and software program has a learning curve and you should have your high school grad hit the ground running when they start college.

Picking a computer may be hard but once you have the requirements regarding operating system, memory, processor and hard drive space I would recommend looking at reviews online.  Amazon has a section with a breakdown by brand which includes reviews and best seller lists which may be helpful in picking the right laptop.

This is usually a graduation gift that is pretty hard to beat and will save the grad a buck or two come the fall.

So to refresh ourselves, what is the meaning of graduating?  In the simplest sense it means "to receive a degree or diploma for completing  some set course of study".  If you take it further it marks the end of something and the beginning of something else.  Nowadays you have graduation ceremonies that may start as early as preschool.  This would mean you could have graduation gifts for:

• Preschool/Kindergarten
• Gradeschool
• 8th grade
• high school
• college/university
• grad school
• med school
• law school

Those are the simplest ones I can remember but there are even more specialty types of graduation out there.

The type of graduation is the first tip to the kind of graduation gift ideas you should be thinking about.  The main commencement events in life seem to be high school graduation and college graduation(or university graduation).  We associate both of these times as both great accomplishments with significant next steps.

So what is a good graduation gift for a high school grad?  Assuming that they are going to college or university I would say the best graduation gift ideas fall into these categories.

Commemorative Gifts/Personalized Gifts

Your graduate is bound to be feeling some nostalgia wrapped up in relief.  Getting something that allows them to remember not only the commencement ceremony but their school and friends will be very thoughtful.  This could depend on the high school involved but you might be able to get clothing with the school name/mascot or other things like pens and mugs that someone may put on Cafepress or something like that.  You could also get personalized engraved frames with a picture of the graduate on graduation day.  The picture of course would have to be given after graduation.

College Related Gifts

College related graduation are made up of what the new student will need to be successful in their studies.  This could include anything from a Kindle to a computer laptop or netbook depending on the school.

Home Gifts

This usually the first time the student is living on their own.  They will need to decorate their dorm rooms or apartments.  Graduation gift ideas for those moving out of the house could be anything that they would need to furnish a new space.  I remember getting my niece a small refrigerator and a gift card to WalMart.

For the college or university grad I would have to say that the graduation gift ideas are similar except for changing the college related category to new job related and adding one for travel related.  So the list would be more like this:

• Commemorative Gifts/Personalized Gifts
• New Job Related Gifts
• Home Gifts
• Travel Related Gifts

Colleges and universities have stores so it is usually much easier to find personalized commemorative gifts to buy for your graduate.  New college grads also have similar needs when it comes to home gifts because usually they are permanently moving out of the house.

College grads are hopefully entering the workforce and need things that they will be able to use in their new jobs.  They might be able to use a PDA to keep them organized.  Nowadays this is tricky because their are so many smartphones that have the same features so do your homework.  Pen sets, executive calculators, gift certificates to higher end clothing stores are just a few graduation gift ideas for the grad with a new job.

For the grad that plans to take some time off travel related gifts may be the ticket.  Many new grads choose to travel to Europe or other exotic places to experience more of the world.  Two gifts that come to mind are journals and rugged quality travel back packs.

I will continue next time with more….