Graduation gift for friend

May 30, 2016 11:47 AM

One of my best friends is graduating from an MBA next week. Other best friend and I would like to get her an ingenious (aka not traditional) gift. Any ideas? We're all 33 year-old women.

We're so proud of our friend! Don't know how those titles will end up yet but she's surely graduating near the top of her class at MIT, no small thing. We have a budget of maybe $100-180 total for the gift and don't want to get her flowers, jewelry or a boring pen. It has to be sold online cause neither of us buying the gift are in Boston.

Any and all ideas are welcome. If it helps with context, my friend has a pretty casual/feminine style and used to be some sort of financial executive at an international company before quitting to focus on the MBA and other startups/consulting options that started coming up.

posted by CrazyLemonade to Shopping (5 answers total)

A year's membership to a professional organisation? I just graduated with a similar professional degree (not an MBA though) and that was a really lovely/useful gift.
posted by Tamanna at 12:34 PM on May 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Congratulations to your friend, and how thoughtful of you! How about writing a collection of letters or journal entries with your other friend where you share what you love about the friend who's graduating: happy shared memories, random anecdotes, notes about her best traits, and what not. It's a private collection that she can look back upon when she's dealing with challenges in her work life and hopefully get a boost! You could also find quotes, favorite poems, and more. It could also be visual with photos and friendship memorabilia but turned into a bound book so it looks sleeker and more "professional" on a bookshelf in her office.
posted by smorgasbord at 12:37 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

High-end champagne flutes and a promise to use them every time there's something so worthy of celebration, or every time she closes a deal or whatever her future job will entail.
posted by Charity Garfein at 2:44 PM on May 30, 2016

Something useful, like a cool case for her tablet or laptop. Instead of a pen, a cool stylus to use with the tablet.
posted by wwartorff at 7:01 PM on May 30, 2016

I like the idea of something that validates the notion that she's going on to great things. Maybe an attache case or a fancier that usual laptop case or messenger bag.
posted by SemiSalt at 3:50 PM on May 31, 2016