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.