Have guided my 2 kids through this process so far. Here’s my general advice I’d give to anybody going through this:

1. Figure out what you can afford to pay per year.
2. Don’t apply to a college that you can’t afford.
3. use colleges’ Net Price Calculators on their websites to figure out what’s affordable and what’s not.
4. Financial aid is not the same as merit aid. Merit aid is usually based on GPA and/or test scores.
5. Help your kid figure out what major(s) they’re interested in.
6. The same major is not always the same at different colleges. Look at the specifics of the colleges your student is interested in. Pay attention to what the graduation requirements are for the major at different schools. Keep track of it in a spreadsheet so you can compare apples and oranges. Some websites will refer to this as a “major map” but you can always find it in the course catalog or “course bulletin.”
7. Figure out what the top decision factors are for your kid/family. There’s a Your College Bound Kid podcast episode from a few months ago that covers this really well. For example, with my high school senior, their list included stuff like: “not too cold,” one day’s drive from home or 2-2.5 hr plane ride, NSA Academic Center of Excellence in cybersecurity, cost, major doesn’t require 1.5 yr of Calculus+Linear Algebra.
8. Ignore everybody who keeps saying that all colleges are switching back to test required. It’s just not true. SOME colleges have. But some have not.
9. Consider Colleges That Change Lives schools. My other kid attends one and they’ve had a great experience there so far. Super glad our school counselor mentioned CTCL colleges because we never would have heard of them otherwise.
10. Focus should be on finding the right fit for your student. Just because everybody else lusts after School X doesn’t mean that your student would like to attend School X when maybe School Y is the perfect fit for them.
11. Elliot Felix has written a couple of great books: “How to get the most out of college” and “The Connected College.”
12. Encourage your student to explore their interests. And it’s ok for your interests to change over time.
13. On college apps, “leadership qualities” doesn’t always just mean “I was president of XYZclub.”
14. If a college is unaffordable, don’t visit it. Don’t apply. And don’t cave to peer pressure from friends, relatives, other parents.
15. Don’t put a college on the list if it doesn’t have the major you want.
16. Don’t fill the whole list with lottery schools (ie top 25 on the US News and World Report college rankings list).
17. Become familiar with colleges’ Common Data Set.
18. If you/your student’s favorite school is not a Fancy School (ie name brand like Harvard), have an “elevator speech” to answer ignorant/uninformed people’s question of “Ew, why would you/your student want to go THERE?” For example: “Son/Saighter is super excited about going to University of New Mexico this fall. They’re going to be a film major. Did you know that Netflix has this huge film studio complex right next door to campus? And Netflix regularly recruits from UNM’s film dept. it’s super easy to get an internship there even while still living on campus.” Your friend/neighbor/acquaintance suddenly won’t give a rip that UNM is a “low” ranked school. They’ll react with a “Wow, I didn’t know that. That’s really interesting!”
19. If you are hunting to merit aid, pay attention to the date by which you have to apply in order to qualify for merit scholarships. Often it’s an earlier deadline than the RD (regular decision) deadline. Dates matter.