Category Archives: Graduation

Highschool & College Graduation Related Posts

April 20, 2011

Financial Planning, Student Loans & Goals

Student loans are far from a fun topic, but when it comes to planning your future, career, and life after college, it’s important to consider the financial ramifications of loans.  Establishing your goals early and managing your debt can go a long way to helping you progress through your career.  If you’re interested in reading more about this topic, we found a great post at Wisebread.com about 4 Essential Financial Tips for Kicking off your Career.

http://www.wisebread.com/4-essential-financial-tips-for-kicking-off-your-career

photo credit

February 15, 2011

Calling Home For Freeeeeee! (or really cheap)


Keeping in touch with the family can get pricey. Over the years in college and on your way to graduation you’ve probably logged in countless hours on the phone with the parents, significant others or conference calls with student groups or your classmates.

But did you know there’s many many many cheaper alternatives to upgrading and adding more time to your calling plan to avoid overages?

Dollarroller.net covers some great services, including FreePhone2Phone, Line2 and of course Google Voice.

Check out the full post here.
Photo Credit

April 7, 2010

Graduation Year Tips for Seniors – Part 1 – Making Cash

The final months of college can be very stressful. When mixing in classes, a senior thesis, job applications, grad school apps, work and vacation plans, it can feel as if you are taking on more than you can chew. While reports are showing more and more college students moving home after college (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-01-10-cover-kids_x.htm ), the transition from college to the “real world” can still be a big step financially. You have graduation costs (cap, gowns, graduation stoles, invitations, parties), moving costs (moving companies, gas, U-Hauls), relocation costs (repurchasing furniture, signing leases, security deposits), and much more.
With costs adding up, why not make some extra cash on the things you no longer need or are likely to throw away? The key to making the most possible is timing though!

Here’s 4 tips on how to make a few extra bucks the quick and dirty (honest) way with all the goods you’ve acquired over the past 4 or 5 years.

1) Sell Your Books: Sell off the books you no longer need. List them on Amazon.com or Half.com. Unless you’re planning on taking them home with you after college, get rid of them. Chances are most graduating seniors end up donating them or selling them to the local bookstore, where in each case you get less money than you might have if you sold it online.
2) Sell Your Furniture: Everything goes! Think of those old garage sales where you use to setup a lemonade stand and bartered with strangers trying to buy your swag. Start selling your furniture. If you live in a fraternity or sorority house, consider doing a “house garage sale.” Keep the cash, or donate it to the chapter, eitherway you win! Big Tip: Don’t wait for the mad last week dash to post your items on craigslist or try to run a garage sale. With the hundreds of other students doing the same thing, you lose the batter of supply and demand and will probably not get as great of a price. Whatever you don’t plan on bringing with you out of college, consider selling!
Here’s a few ideas: Bookshelfs, Desk & Chairs (though you may want these one for finals), Extra TVs, Game Consoles, TV Stands, Kitchenware, Bed Frames, Extra Mirrors, Futons & Bean Bags.
3) Selling Your Clothes: Do you really plan on bringing your entire wardrobe home? That shirt you bought for the Jersey Shore themed party, are you really going to wear it again? Or the boots from Halloween 2008? Sell it and make some cash back! With craigslist if you organize your post well you can probably sell your stuff by the bag and get rid of it all at once.

4) Sell Stuff For Your Friends: Is your friend trying to offload his TV to someone else, or are they trying to get rid of their desk already? Offer to sell it for them if you get 25% of the profits.
There’s numerous ways to make some extra cash, be creative, and most importantly… have fun, because it’s college!

photo credit Tostie14

April 4, 2010

What’s Graduation Mean To You?


What does graduation mean to you or what does it mean to your parents or the people who put you through school?

To us, graduation signifies a time to celebrate your accomplishments. Graduation day and your commencement ceremony is often on par with your wedding day and the birth of your first child. It’s not only when good things come to an end, but when a new chapter in your life begins.

Regardless of the path you take after graduation, if you’ll be traveling, going straight to grad school or entering the work force, we wish you the best.
Congratulations to the Class of 2010. And while we do hope you consider us when ordering graduation stoles, even if you choose another vendor, may all your dreams come to fruition!

And we’d like to leave you with a few of our favorite inspirational graduation quotes:

“Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you’ll make a difference.” – Arie Pencovici

“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Desire and hope will push us on toward the future” – Michel de Montaigne

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” – Frank A. Clark

“All that stands between the graduate and the top of the ladder is the ladder.” – Unknown

April 10, 2009

Graduation Tip: Watch Your Spending!

Today’s graduation tips moves away from the classroom and more to everyday life.  In your last semester at college, your spending may get a little out of control:

  • Weekend Leisure Expenses
  • Grad School Applications
  • Graduation Photos
  • Graduation Apparel (Stoles, Gowns, Invitations, etc.)
  • Moving expenses

If you are currently working, hopefully these added expenses will not hurt you too much, but its important to keep track of money coming in and money leaving.

Be sure to budget out everything, as the last thing you’ll want to do is get into debt when entering the real world.
A great financial blog that we’d highly recommend is Get Rich Slowly.  If you’re not really a blog research/reading type of person and prefer a book in your hand, check out the recommendations of the top 25 finance books available.

April 8, 2009

Graduation Tip: Participation & The One Question Rule

Graduation tip #2 goes along with the previous graduation tip, which was to talk to your teaching assistant.  Today’s tip focuses on the simple rule of asking (at least) one question per discussion section.  While this tip may seem very simple, you’ll be surprised at how many students actually do not do this.
This idea comes from another tactic that many shy people are taught, which is to say hi or smile at 3 strangers per day.  The goal here is to become more comfortable with interacting with strangers you do not know and eventually striking up conversations.
The simple task of asking a question or two and engaging in conversation at least once per section helps show your involvement in classes.  The trick here is to make sure the TA also knows your name!  Think in the big picture, in the real world what good is talking to the big boss and giving him a great idea, and then leaving without even introducing yourself?

I remember when I was in college, I had some teaching assistants who in the 10th week still did not know the names of many of their students.  Was this their fault?  Were they partying too hard or just really bad with names?  It was neither, it was my fault!  Throughout the entire quarter I had failred to make a lasting impression that would force them to remember my name!

So to summarize, participate, participate, participate.  Here’s a bonus tip.  Email the TA before the discussion session with a quick question, or a follow-up question after the section.  This helps ensure the TA knows your first and last name and to not confuse you with other students who may have the same first name.

April 7, 2009

Graduation Tip: Talk To Your TA

This is the first of hopefully many in a series of graduation tips for seniors planning on graduating this year.  While the focus will be on seniors, we’re sure most of these tips can be used by students in any grade level.

Today’s post focuses on teaching assistants, one of the most under utilized yet useful resources a student can have.  Teaching assistants often hold the answer to tests before they are administered, control grades for their students, and can write a mean letter of recommendation when needed.

Here are 3 major reasons why you SHOULD talk to your teaching assistant:

Project Extensions:

It’s easier to ask for an extension on a paper or project once you’ve built genuine rapport with your TA.  Most won’t mind and will be friendly to extensions.  They’ve been through college, they know stuff comes up, and well… they’ll be backlogged with other students’ papers already, so what’s an extra day to them?

They Grade You:

In a lecture hall of 300+ students, they are the ones giving you grades and directly deciding if you made the A- or B+ cut.  Get to know your TA, understand what he or she is looking for in papers and projects, and what expectations they have for their students.  Spending 10 minutes a week talking to your TA could make or break your GPA for grad school, no joke.

Argue Grades:

Hopefully it does not come to this, but if you are borderline between one grade or another, knowing your TA will make it that much easier to argue for the higher grade.  I think it goes without saying, they will be more lenient and willing to negotiate your grade if you had attended office hours all semester.

November 25, 2008

The Coolest Decorated Graduation Gown Ever

Have you ever seen a graduation gown light up?  We haven’t either until now!  Thank you goes out to Diane who forwarded this over to us.  It seems a while back a graduate decided he wanted to stand out a little more during commencement ceremonies.  No, not by decorating his graduation cap, or ordering a custom graduation stole from us, but by decorating his gown.  Really, he pimped out his graduation gown with LEDs and a full out circuit board to power it.  Here’s the video proof:

If you’re interested in doing something similar, the graduate had posted the schematics and everything for the hacked graduation gown.

July 23, 2008

What to Do with Your Graduation Money


photo credit: luismi1985

So you’ve just finished up four tumultuous years of college and chances are you’re broke.  If you’re lucky enough to have a family that wants to celebrate your huge accomplishment then you’re going to have a party.  Don’t feel guilty about the gifts you receive.  Chances are some of your relatives will give you more money that you could have imagined.  Be gracious and thank them properly.  Your older relatives are recognizing your accomplishments and know that you probably have little to no money left after four years in school and not working.  Besides putting the bulk of the money in your savings account, here are a few more ideas for you graduation money:

  1. Take a trip.  Think about it: when will you have a chance to go anywhere in the world with nothing holding you back.  If you don’t have a job that you’re starting right away then this is the perfect time to go away for a week or two.  When you start working you’re going to have precious few vacation days at your disposal so take advantage of this opportunity.  If you still have your student identification card then you can probably cash in on some deals that are offered only to students.
  2. Treat your parents to a nice dinner.  You always hear about parents taking their kids out to a nice dinner after graduation ceremonies, turn the tables and take them out.  They’ll resist you paying but let them know it’s not going to be a common occurrence and they’ll gladly go.
  3. Buy a suit.  You’re going to need a suit for your job interviews and it’s worth it to a buy a nice one instead of the one you’ve had for years that you only wear to weddings and funerals.  Consider it an investment in your future.  Remember you can only a make a first impression once.
  4. Get the work done on your car that it needs.  Wherever you start working you’re going to need reliable wheels.  While you have a little dough it’s time to take care of your car instead of waiting until you’re making a meager salary.  You’ll be happy you took care of it early on.
  5. Upgrade your wardrobe.  This is the best time to go on a guilt-free shopping spree.  Feel free to go to the mall with carte blanche.  Buy clothes for all seasons while you have the chance to spend freely.

This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who is an industry critic on online college reviews. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.