College graduation can be an exciting time as you embark on the rest of your life. It can also be a sentimental time as you say goodbye to the friends you’ve made during your time at college and reminisce about the memories you have made together.
Looking for college graduation gifts to help your best friends remember all the good times you had together as you go your separate ways and start doing some serious adulting? You don’t want to be giving out lame gifts – of course you want something creative, useful, and meaningful.
Look no farther than these twelve must-have college graduation gifts for your favorite new grads!
Customized Cornhole Game
There’s no better way to say “see you later” than giving a gift the whole group of friends can enjoy when getting back together as alumni to tailgate before the homecoming game. Customize these pine cornhole boards with up to two lines of text – the perfect way to be sure an inside joke, nickname, house name, or memory lives on past graduation.
This college graduation gift includes two customized game boards and eight bean bags in two colors.
Scales of Justice Wine Glass
This stemless red wine glass, engraved with scales of justice and a personalized name and short phrase, is the perfect college graduation gift for someone just finishing up law school.
This wine glass can provide inspiration and support (okay, maybe that’s what the wine is for) for your favorite new law school grad as they study for the bar exam.
Beer Cap Map
This college graduation gift is designed with people in mind who love two things: traveling and beer. This beer cap map of the United States makes for great man cave décor while displaying caps from breweries across the country. Be sure to insert a cap from your college town’s local brewery before giving this gift to start the collection off right.
If you have a college friend who loves trying new beers and will be traveling a lot in their new gig, this could be a gift that means a lot to them for years to come. They’ll be sure to think of you as they collect the 81 beer caps.
Personalized Copper Flask
Classy friends deserve classy gifts, and this certainly fits the bill. This copper plated flask can be customized to say whatever you’d like, and holds up to eight ounces of liquor.
Whether you decide to customize the flask with an inside joke or encourage your friend as you all head out into the real world, this is a great gift for a friend who cares about always keeping it classy.
Just One Glass
We all have that one friend who says they aren’t going to drink that much, but no one ever believes them (and for good reason). This wine glass is the perfect college graduation gift for someone who likes to say they’ll “just have one glass.”
This “one glass” holds an entire bottle of red or white wine, which is about the perfect size for winding down after those first few days on the new job. Make sure to include a bottle of your friend’s favorite wine to complete the gift!
Personalized Bottle Opener
Remind your buddies of all the good times you had over the past four years each time they crack open a beer by giving this personalized bottle opener as a college graduation gift.
You can add two lines of text, which is a great opportunity to turn this useful gift into something meaningful as you all celebrate graduation with a few cold ones.
Beer Pong Champion Sign
Are you good friends with your frat’s reigning beer pong champion? Help them memorialize this achievement forever with a custom beer pong champion sign to hang in their new man cave or bachelor pad.
Customize this sign with the champ’s name, the year of their achievement, and a custom phrase, and you’ve got a great college graduation gift for one of your (undoubtedly) most fun friends or friend groups!
Timeless Shaving Kit
Whether you already have a new job lined up, or are still interviewing with hopes of impressing the right employer, chances are you’re hoping to make a good impression right away.
This shaving kit is not only kind of fun to use, but helps you achieve a close shave on day one of the new job or for the big interview – an important part of a professional appearance.
Magnetic Fridge Bottle Opener
This unique magnetic bottle opener makes a great college graduation gift for your favorite beer drinkers. Stick it on the fridge for an easy way to crack open a cold one, and an aesthetically pleasing way at at that.
Customize the text on this stainless steel bottle opener, held on the fridge with strong, non-scratch magnet, and you’ve got a great grad gift for your friends!
Engraved Whiskey Glass and Chilling Stones
Keep this engraved glass of liquor cold without watering it down using a set of whiskey chilling stones! With a custom engraved whiskey glass, gift box, set of 9 chilling stones, tongs, and a velvet bag to hold the stones in, the only thing left to grab to make this gift set complete is the liquor. Customize this college graduation gift with a name, graduation year, and short personalized phrase.
Watch Display Case and Leather Valet Box
This graduation gift is perfect for those who like the finer things in life. This case holds up to ten watches under a glass top and also holds cuff links and executive pens in the drawer below. The valet box itself is made of black leather, and can be engraved when a monogram to make it personal.
Shot Glass Checkers Set
Put a new twist on an old classic with this drinking edition of checkers. The basic rules are the same, but if you get jumped you take the shot and if you get crowned, make it a double! The set comes with a glass game board and 26 one ounce shot glasses. Just add your favorite liquor, gather up some friends, and it’s game on with this graduation gift!
I really love the scales of justice wine glass.
I think it would be great for anyone, who wouldn’t want to justify another glass of wine.
Just make sure to balance the scales.
Do chilling stones really work to cool your drink down? How cold does it make it?
I also love the magnetic fridge bottle opener, but that’s because I just really like magnets.
Yes the chilling stones are supposed to work as a replacement for ice! All that needs to be done is to keep them in your freezer as you would and use as needed and it works fine just like ice does (without watering down).
I like the customized corn hole set and it is a toss up between the portable personalized bottle opener and the magnetic fridge bottle opener (also personalized). I’ll have to go with the magnetic fridge opener – that just looks too cool – I hope it works right and doesn’t come off the fridge when you try to open a bottle. The personalized magnetic fridge bottle opener is only $19.95 – awesome and will make a perfect gift.
I’d say both are great choices, but I agree with the magnetic one as well. It’s just so much more functional and unique. Like I say, we would never recommend anything we wouldn’t use ourselves!
I found your website while searching for unique gifts for the grandchildren and soon to be grads.
Thanks for a such an original gift list. I was born without a gift picking gene and I’m totally dependent on other to save me from embarrassing myself whenever gifts are expected. Now, thanks to you, I can actually empress my grandchildren when they graduate. Also, I love micro-brewed beer and will get the beer cap map for over the bar.
You made my gift picking easy.
You’re not alone and that’s exactly what drives me to help out! Thanks for the kind words.
What good ideas you put here, I loved the map of the beer cap. I’ll probably get one for myself too since I’m planning on doing a trip all over the USA. And the second one that I also loved is the Just one Glass haha, it’s the perfect gift for many of my friends 🙂
Great idea and definitely perfect as you travel more. Thanks for reading!
I have a friend that just graduated and is taking a job with a big consulting firm. The Beer Cap Map seems like a killer idea for him since he’s a bit of a beer snob too!
Any idea how it mounts to the wall? Does it require studs, or is it pretty light weight?
The beer cap map actually comes predrilled (as you can see in the picture as well) and it’s ready to hang. On the retail website, they advise simply to use finish nails to do the job.
Awesome! One of my best friends is going to graduate this year and I have been thinking of getting him something. I’m happy that I found your website with this article. It gives a lot of suggestions I didn’t even think about. Now I have some ideas of how a graduation gift should be. Thank you so much.
Hi Amber,
Thanks for this great guide and pretty straightforward list article on College Graduation Gifts. This is exactly what I was looking for a simple yet memorable colloge graduation gift for my younger brother. I find this article very helpful as it helps me shopping for college gift more easier with these unique items that this article provide.
Great post and it made me think about what the dad give to a friend of me.
It is similar to the beer map, but he gave a map where all the best breweries of the world are. So he is “forced” to do a worldtrip, to find them all.
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind, he is a absolutely beer lover.
I will save this post because when our future childs graduates, we need to have something for them, and those twelve gifts you mentioned, are all pretty good!
Thanks for sharing it!
Hello Amber,
I know you called this “Twelve Must-Have College Graduation Gifts” but I honestly think these are great gifts for anytime!
They were very cool little gifts indeed.
I especially liked the ‘Just 1 glass’ as I always say that I’m just having 1 glass hehe
Awesome post!
Tim
Thank you for your blog post on twelve must have gifts for college graduation, I notice that most of them are alcohol related, interestingly enough!
Although your title suggests that these gifts are for college graduates, they also make very nice gifts for Christmas presents and your actually giving me ideas! I think I would probably go for the shaving kit first and then the personalised bottle opener and then maybe the fridge magnet bottle opener, which is extremely convenient, better than having to dig around in the bottom of the drawer for a bottle opener!
It never fails to amaze me with the ideas that manufacturers come up with, for example, a shot glass checkers set, how do they think it all up.
Well done for making such an interesting gift list.
Roy Bretton
The Christian Internet Marketer
Glad we could help Roy! I definitely agree that it applies to occasions outside graduations. Look out for more picks like this for several other occasions and purposed – coming soon!
What a great site for some really neat ideas for unique gifts. Wow I will have a collage grad in a few years and I will definitely book mark your page. I really think the chill stones are neat.. I have never even heard that there was anything like that available. Nothing worse than a watered down drink when you want to just sip it. Well researched.
Thank you Monika I agree and might get one of those chill stone sets myself to be honest.
Hi,
Great graduation gifts! I like the copper flask and the shot glass checkers set. I notice you can personalize the checkers set as well. Great! I think these will mostly make great gifts for guys. Do you maybe have some ideas for the girls as well?
Thanks for sharing some exciting and fun gifts with us!
I’ve curated some great new picks that are great for women or as a couples gift as well – check them out below!
Uniquely Sculpted Wine Glasses: https://www.shareasale.com/m-p…
Cheese Board that Doubles as a Chalkboard: https://www.shareasale.com/m-p…
Engraved Wine Box: https://www.shareasale.com/m-p…
Marble Coasters With Personalization: https://www.shareasale.com/m-p…
Customizable Shadow Box – “Drink Together Stay Together”: https://www.shareasale.com/m-p…
Keep an eye out on our site for more articles and choices like this.
Some very nice recommendations here! I have some friends who are graduating soon. I’ll have to figure out something and maybe we can throw a party with some of these products. The cap map is actually really cool, my grandfather had something like that, aside from all the caps he collected. Probably had thousands LOL.
The cap map was definitely one of my favorite choices I came across and I just had to share it. I’m glad I could help!
Cute post, with some nifty graduation gift suggestions. Your selection is original, with something for everyone. I love the shotglass checker set. Someone thought a bit outside the box to come up with that one. Though we think of graduation as being around June, there are winter grads, too, so you can save a lot of folks time when they need a unique gift. You showed us some fun ideas.
I appreciate the kind words and am glad I could provide some value to you I definitely agree that these (and many other picks we make) are usable for several occasions. Stay tuned for more!