[jyl]

One piece of advice I got, and that I am seeing work for some kids, is: if a kid has very good numbers (grades/SATs), find the best schools ("best" for the kid, not "best" in status/ranking terms) for which the kid will be in the top 10% of accepted students and that are well endowed (probably private). The lower 50% of accepted students pay full list, and subsidize the top 10% that the school really needs to burnish their incoming class statistics. Schools will give full rides or close to that 10%.

My advice to my daughter has been:
1. Look for a school with a wide variety of kids, where you will have a good time and friends. If you don't tend to like the uber-driven, hyper-competitive, >4.0 GPA super-students in high school, don't look for colleges that are packed with those kids. On the other hand, if you like hard-working, focused, smart kids who like learning and studying, don't end up at a party/ski school.
2. Look for a school with strong undergraduate classes/teaching in the specific departments you are interested in. Sounds obvious but many kids/parents are more focused on overall school metrics/ranking or over-impressed with a school's research reputation. I went to UC Berkeley and UCLA, the dozens of Nobel winners there didn't make a whit of difference to me, but the 300 person classes taught in huge lecture halls by graduate students with English as a second language did.
3. Look for a school where you can achieve a high GPA while still having a life. Burning yourself out to get a 3.0 will be no fun and won't get you into top graduate schools, if that is where your direction lies.
4. Look for a school in a town/city that is at least somewhat interesting. Doesn't have to be Manhattan but an isolated campus in Nowhere isn't my recommendation either (think Sarah Lawrence).
5. Look for a school that you (we) can afford comfortably, from which you'll graduate with zero or minimal student debt. Heavy debt is crushing, it eliminates many of your choices and options, and makes you a wage slave in what should be your most free, most experimental stage of life.