Need an affordable suggestion for Graduation Present....  

My favourite gift for special occasions is a brass pen with the person's name engraved on it.

if you want you can look at my site and the links on my site. there are a bunch of choices.

I know that you said that you do not like gift cards and to be clear, I dont either but I have had 2 daughters go away to college and 3 nephews. All the colleges and universities are along way off. When kids go along way off to school, they do not have much company and they appreciate mail from home. After our two daughters graduated we decided to do somethign different for the nephews. We sent them a gift card for a restaurant each month. They loved getting cards from home and a hot meal was appreciated too. I also gave them gifts in a mug which I mailed to them.

Well the first thing that comes to mind is an alarm clock. A student no matter where they are living needs one and they have them with those themes. My second was a lamp, again something that can almost always be used. You could get her something like that and a gift card, perhaps a small gift card but that way you got her something personal and the gift card she suggested.

Even before I opened this and read the entire post, my first thought was a scrapbook. If you have plenty of pictures of your niece growing up, you can put them together and create a little book of her as she's gone through the years. With a Childhood Years theme that would go along with it just perfectly.

A nice watch is a great graduation gift. The brand "Fossil" has some very cool watches for young women. Good luck!

When my 2 nieces graduated, I made them each a scrapbook. I decorated it, and made each page different. I think if you have a lot of pictures of your niece, you could make her a simple scrapbook starting from when she was younger to a little older, to the present. My nieces both told me that was their all time favorite present!! :-)

Even if she's not going to live in a dorm a small refrigerator could come in handy. I bought my hubby one for Christmas the year before last and we love having it in our den so handy. Yep, we're lazy. LOL I'm my not sure though that you would want to spend that much. I know shipping is a factor - but you could order it online and have it sent to her. Hmm....other than that I'll have to put my thinking cap on.
I love the themed idea though!

A basket of bath items and candles. A survival kit for college or her first apartment with a phone card, small tool set, flashlight, batteries.. all the practical things kids don't think about. A certificate for a day at the spa. A favorite childhood book with a nice inscription. Some pretty stationary with stamped envelopes (yes, some people do still write!) Check with her mother for sizes and preferences and maybe a pretty outfit. Gas cards, grocery cards.

wow that is a tough one. a few graduation parties that i attended had what they called a money tree. someone tied dollar bills or whatever bills to the tree and set it on the table at the party so other guest could add money to the tree also. i am not sure what your neice has but a set of dishes is nice, pots and pans, storage bowls, microwave etc. anything for a house would be nice since she will be moving on her own.