Graduation Gifts for Friends, From Classmates to Your Best Friend

An 11-ounce white coffee mug with a Graduating Class of design and the text and colors you choose. At this price you can buy several without much thought, so it works for a group of classmates, teammates or a whole lab section.

Good for

Buying several at once for a team, a class or a study group.

Skip it if

You want something only this one friend would get.

A large graduation tin holding 8 chocolate-covered Oreo cookies, which you can personalize for free. It's a simple choice for a parent buying for a daughter's friends or a whole carpool: nobody has to display it, and the tin can stick around for desk clutter.

Good for

Parents buying for a daughter's friends, a son's teammates or the neighbor kids.

Skip it if

You don't know about allergies. Check with a parent or choose something you can't eat.

Natural crystal stones hang with a custom wooden tag carrying an initial, and the keychain comes with a printed card that says "For your next chapter." For a low price it still feels chosen, and it can ride along on a new set of apartment keys.

Good for

A friend who loves small charms and keeps a big key ring.

Skip it if

Crystals aren't their thing, or they barely carry keys.

A trivia game about what classrooms skipped, like why the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows and when shampoo was invented. After years of tests nobody asked for, the joke lands with the whole room, and it gives people something to do at the party once the speeches end.

Good for

The friend who corrects people at bar trivia.

Skip it if

They're burned out on anything that resembles a quiz.

An acrylic plaque on a base, with a cartoon graduate, ribbon details and a printed name, school and year. Cheerfully over the top is the right tone for a friend who spent the last month in the library, and it gives a new desk its first laugh.

Good for

College friends with a sense of humor about their own degree.

Skip it if

The he or she wording wouldn't fit your friend. Check the options before you order.

A stoneware dish that makes an omelet in the microwave in about 45 seconds. It's a silly gift, but anyone who has lived on cereal through finals will get use out of it in a first apartment. For a roommate, it's a joke about your shared kitchen that also makes breakfast.

Good for

Roommates who've seen each other's cooking and survived.

Skip it if

They don't eat eggs, or there's no microwave where they're headed.

A glass jewelry box in silver, engraved with a friendship design. As keepsakes go, it doesn't ask much: a home for earrings, a ticket stub from that one concert, and whatever else your friend can't throw out. Put a small note inside so there's something to find when it's opened.

Good for

A best friend who saves everything, down to the ticket stubs.

Skip it if

They're packing for a move and every box counts.

Two officially licensed rocks glasses printed with hand-drawn, 360-degree illustrations of buildings and landmarks around campus. Because it's a set of two, it's ready for the first toast at someone's new place. Save it for friends of legal drinking age, though it works just as well with iced tea.

Good for

College friends who will miss the campus as much as the people.

Skip it if

Their school isn't offered, or they'd never reach for a rocks glass.

Vanilla shortbread cookies stamped with your own message, in three lines of up to 12 characters each. That's room for a name, a date or the joke only the two of you still find funny. They'll be gone within the week, a relief for a friend packing up an apartment.

Good for

Friends with an inside joke short enough to fit.

Skip it if

Your joke won't fit in 12 characters a line, or there's an allergy to work around.

Three wooden segments twist to scramble the adverbs, verbs and nouns of office speak into phrases nobody should say with a straight face. It's a desk toy for someone about to spend a lot of time in meetings, and it's funnier if they open it before attending one.

Good for

The friend heading into a corporate job with mixed feelings.

Skip it if

They're going to grad school, into a trade or to any job without meetings.

This gunmetal 4x6 frame carries an engraved friendship design and holds one photo, vertical in this version, and the listing also offers a horizontal one. Choose the picture carefully and put it in before you wrap it. The worst photo of the two of you, framed this nicely, makes a better gift than a flattering one.

Good for

Best friends with years of embarrassing photos to choose from.

Skip it if

You can't find a photo you both can live with.

A pair of glasses engraved all the way around with the map of a U.S. city or town you choose, plus a custom message. You can pick 11-ounce rocks, 15-ounce stemless wine or 16-ounce pint glasses. Choose the town you grew up in, or the college town you're both leaving.

Good for

Friends from the same hometown who are headed in different directions.

Skip it if

They're under 21 and barware can wait, or that town isn't one they feel fondly about.

A gift card for the delivery app they already use costs as much or as little as you like, and it takes up no room in a moving box. Between the last exam and the first paycheck, a friend living on very little will be glad to have dinner covered.

Good for

Friends in the middle of a move, and any friend who has said they want nothing.

Skip it if

You want them to have something to hold on to later.

No link here, and no commission for us. This one is just worth doing.

Tap this wood lamp and its partner lights up in the same color wherever it is, with no message needed. Two friends moving to different cities get a small way to say hello without starting a text thread. Check how many lamps the listed price covers, since you'll need two.

Good for

Best friends headed to different cities who are bad at texting back.

Skip it if

You're moving to the same city anyway, or the cost of a second lamp stretches your budget.