2. Examine the financial aid packages.
If financial aid is an important consideration, compare the financial packages offered by each college. If one college’s package is better than the others, call the other financial aid offices and use the larger offer as leverage to ask them to match the better offer. Don’t get your hopes up though; some will negotiate and others will not.

Take into consideration what the total cost of attending each college will be, what the colleges are offering you, what your parents are able to contribute, and what you can contribute through working during the school year and in the summer.

3. Re-read the highlighted descriptions of the colleges in your college guidebooks.
If you have highlighted the things you like and don’t like about each college in a college guidebook (e.g., The Fiske Guide, The Insider’s Guide, etc.), go back to these highlights to reacquaint yourself with what you found. If you haven’t gone through this process before, buy or borrow a guidebook book and do the highlighting now. Compare the highlights with the list of desired characteristics you have noted down.

4. Talk with students, teachers, counselors, family and friends about the different colleges:

Students
Graduates from your high school who are current students, other current students at colleges, and recent young alumni who live in your area (names and contact information should be available from the admissions office) all are excellent resources for finding out the “real skinny” about individual colleges.

Teachers and college counselors
Your teachers, as well as high school and independent counselors can be valuable sources of insight and information about colleges. Over the years, they have taught and/or counseled scores of students. As a result, they probably have a sense for different colleges and what kinds of students usually do well at them.

Parents, older siblings, and other family members
No one knows you better than your family. Even though it might be hard to do, hear what your family’s impressions are of different colleges. It’s important to remember that they will be taking partial or total responsibility for paying for your college expenses, but it is also imperative that you make up your own mind.