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Gifts for the High School Graduate

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Family Holidays

A couple of weeks ago on Facebook, I asked for your best gift ideas for graduating high school seniors. Graduation season is almost over, but here are some last minute gifts that might help your graduate make the transition to college smoother (these are all Amazon links, but no affiliate kickback):

  1. A Kindle. While not every textbook will be on Kindle, a few will be, and most libraries have some kind of option for digital lending of required novels or non-fictions pieces. Some schools even offer article bundles for class as a Kindle purchase. So much easier than dealing with those giant piles of photocopies that I used as a college student. You can pre-load the Kindle with a fun novel to get them through the summer, and
  2. Tina Quick’s The Global Nomad’s Guide to University Transition: This introduction to the first year of college is perfect for TCKs. It addresses the typical first year issues found in any guidebook to college, but goes into depth on the things that affect TCKs more than other typical freshman. Quick has some great insight into how to make the first weeks smoother as well as how to hold on to the community of friends and family that are now even further away from you than before.
  3. Hal Runkel’s Choose Your Own Adulthood: This is a bit of a self-help guide, it walks you through the process of making decisions both big and small, and how your choices will have effects on who you are as an adult. From the publisher: “Choose Your Own Adulthood helps you approach these choices from a more thoughtful, curious, and ultimately self-aware perspective. You’ll learn why responding is so much better than reacting, how loyalty is really overrated, which risks are worth taking and which are best avoided, and so much more.”
  4. A gift card to the college bookstore, or to a popular food chain close to campus. Most campus book stores are run either by Follett or Barnes and Noble, but your graduate’s school may be independent. Check the website to figure it out. This would be a great send-off gift in August, or any time throughout the year.
  5. A tourist guide to their new college town. Go for either the classic top sights to see in town, or a book of ideas for little off-the-beaten path getaways and give them some ideas to escape their everyday on a long weekend.
  6. Every traveler needs their own set of luggage, but dorm space is often pretty tight. Consider the ever-popular duffel bag from LLBean or the ultra-light Samsonite for things that are easy to stow under beds or on the top shelf of the closet. If you’re extra-inspired, get it in their school colors.
  7. A Peel-and-Stick Dry Erase board. They don’t have to confine their door messages to a tiny magnetic frame any more, they can turn their whole door into a fun message and inspiration board.
  8. A basic Tool Kit, this one includes a couple of items I am always looking for. Your always prepared graduate will be popular with their fellow dorm dwellers who are trying to DIY something and just need a level or screwdriver.

There are also lots of great things from your life abroad that would be fun gifts for your graduate. In many ways, college students are making do with less “stuff” than they used to, but they always enjoy personalizing their space. Lightweight wall hangings, fun ceramic mugs, an unusual pencil cup… anything that isn’t breakable can remind them of their home-away-from-campus, and give them a little connection to you that they see every day.

Happy New Year 2019!

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College List Holidays Tours

What, what?! 2019?

It may seem like 2018 just started a few days ago, but here at Nomad we’re already looking forward to the 2019 admissions cycle. If you’re graduating in 2019, now’s the time to start your college admissions plan.

You’re probably already thinking about your summer college tour plans. I advise students based in the USA to take two rounds of tours. In the first round, you should visit schools geographically close to you. In this tour, you’re not looking at schools you might want to attend, you’re looking at the different types of schools that are out there. You could go one afternoon after class, or on a school holiday. You should visit:

1. A small liberal arts college (a great list of “Colleges that Change Lives” is at https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/ )
2. A large state school (the flagship preferably)
3. And, something that isn’t either, possibly a school with a vocational specialty (like art or engineering) or a school with a strong religious or cultural affiliation.

Your goal in this first tour would be to get a feel for where to focus your search for the schools that will fit you the best.

Your second set of tours would be to those schools you’ve identified as places you might want to actually attend. For most students, this tour takes place in the Spring or Summer of their Junior year, depending on their school schedules.

If you’re abroad, however, you’ll probably go only on the targetted tour. So, how do you know what type of school is the one you should be focusing on? That’s where an Independent Consultant or college planning guide can help you out.  Take some surveys about your academic and social strengths and preferences, talk about what you like and don’t like about the schools you’ve attended before, and talk to people who are already at some different types of schools.

Ask them:

1. How big are your introductory-level classes? Who teaches them?

If you’re a student who likes a lot of interaction with their instructor, you might prefer a school with smaller intro classes or strong TA-led discussion sections. If you learn without needing a lot of Q&A, large lectures might work well for you. Some state schools teach these intro classes entirely online these days, do you think that will work for you?

2. What’s life like in your Residence Hall?

Do they feel like they made friends and found a place for themselves easily? Did they struggle to fit in or meet people? What do they think their school offered that helped with that? Some large schools offer specialised residences for people interested in certain hobbies, majors, lifestyles. Some smaller schools have tiny residences with only 60+ students so you really know everyone in the building.

3. Do you think the school you are attending is the school you thought it was when you toured it? What did you miss the first time?

This question might help them and you understand what you might want to look for when you actually make it to an on-campus tour. Most tours focus on the glamour, amenities and architecture, but those aren’t as important to understanding the differences between universities and colleges as some other factors. What really mattered to this student?

Once you have a good idea of the major differences between the types of schools, you’ll want to work on narrowing down to the other factors that are important to you.

We’ll talk more in a later post about some of those factors, and choosing which schools you should visit in person.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for some students who might be able to help you answer these and other questions you have about college life, check out the Facebook Group “Foreign Service Youth – College Bound“ sponsored by the Foreign Service Youth Foundation.