The best gift for a college student can be any thing essential and important that might help his dorm life a bit easier. To list out five of the best I would always suggest that some thing which is utility oriented should be given utmost priority but at the same time gifts which have emotional value should not be neglected altogether. The best gifts will have a good blend of emotion as well as utility. The best of the lot should be molded out from an innovative mind.
The general gifts that one can actually plan for is and honestly should be utility based!
Parents can actually give their college going child a microwave or a cooker or help them with a small refrigerator he might need to keep in his dorm. These gifts are a good way to encourage them to take responsibility of their lives and will also to make their lives simple and comfortable.
If a refrigerator or a cook ware like a microwave or a oven is getting too costly then a simple coffee maker to can be useful and that too can come to the his rescue when he is in his morning hour rush and will not let him miss out at least on a cupful of coffee or hot chocolate. The appliances for cooking are always a welcome gift to a college student from his parents because they will come to his rescue every now and them and that will remind him of his parents and which in turn will keep him well connected to his mother and father.
The best thing to gift again is a debatable topic because some parents think that it is not right for their child to live such a hard life that is to cook and then do his work. But unfortunately if he do not know how to cook it would be very hard for him to even survive if not he has a team of servants running after him and keeping a tab on him.
College life has a lot of independence and with that independence comes a lot of responsibility and parents would like to use some gifts to remind their child of his responsibilities and the best way to do that is through gifts some really well thought out gifts again that kind of gifts could be a memento , a photo album with a lot of old and fond memories of the past struggles of the family life.
Even an artifact like a pen or a quill, a base ball club that represents a lot of struggle in the his(dad's) young days these things actually goes straight into the heart of your young college going child and they too make great gifts.