High school grads go online to gift-wish registries
— -- Like brides-to-be and expectant parents, high school graduates are using online registries to help friends and family pick out gifts that match their lifestyles.
Dorm Co, one of the registries targeting recent high school alumni, advises students to include a link to its site in their graduation invitations. The site allows users to create wish lists of items from multiple websites.
MyRegistry.com also uses this feature, and additionally lets users request cash donations, which are deposited into a PayPal Account.
A third of graduates who register request contributions to a cash fund, and donations range from $100 to $3,000, says MyRegistry President Nancy Lee.
Lee anticipates that more than 100,000 families will open an account with MyRegistry this graduation season.
Online registries such as Dorm Co and MyRegistry aren't the only ways students and their families create graduation wish lists. Grace Vianney, a senior at Suffield Academy in Sufffield, Conn., has compiled her gift list on the social-media platform Pinterest.
Vianney says a button on her bookmark bar allows her to "pin" items from online stores and add them to her wish lists.
Vianney has her wish lists separated by theme, including one collection of clothes and another for dorm room gear.
Vianney has sent family members her user name, which allows them to find her wish list. And since her Pinterest boards are public, anyone can search for them.
Not everyone approves of this growing trend.
Cindy Post Senning, who works at Ms. Etiquette, an institution dedicated to promoting etiquette and civility, says gift registries should be limited to weddings, where gift-giving is a common practice.
If family members want to give a graduation gift, cash is usually appreciated, she says.
"Since you cannot bring everything with you if you're going to school across the country, having a cash fund allows you to buy things once you arrive."
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