I'm curious as to what criteria you're using to help pick the right college for your kids?
Location?
Tuition?
Size?
Reputation?
Major?
How difficult or how easy it is to get into?
Everyone's criteria is so different so the "right" college is quite personal.
In our case, we started with location. Daughter wants to stay in the northeast, although her #1 pick is a little further than she would have liked. We started out by visiting a small, medium, and large school. She got a feel for size and decided at least 2500 students or so, so not too tiny, but she found out she would prefer not to attend a large school. (Although she may have to attend our state university, depending on financial aid. It's a fairly large school, but hopefully she'll find a niche.)
Next she looked at schools that have a good reputation in her intended area of study, although as we visited, she learned about another major that she really became interested in, so all her potential schools have at least those two majors. The thing about majors is....they change. Often. So unless your son has a unique program in mind, any number of schools should have the basic depts.
Once we nailed down size, location, and majors, we looked at reputation, then the extras. Some of dd's wishes were a school with school spirit (I know, not a very important thing in the grand scheme of things, but it is to HER), and lots of clubs and opportunities for volunteering. She also thinks she wants a Greek system, although she really has no experience with that.
As far as cost, we picked two financial safeties. One was out of state that she wasn't crazy about (we haven't visited though. Everyone on College Confidential says a visit sells the school.) It's big, but we knew she was guaranteed free tuition because of her standardized scores. It's kind of off the table because she was also given free tuition at our state school, although our state school is quite a bit more expensive than the other school as afr as fees, room, and board. (Alabama). Sorry for digressing. My point is, have at least one financial safety school that your son would be at least ok attending. After that, we did not really pay attention to price. They are all so expensive. We did try to pay attention to % of need met; however, be aware that loans are considered aid, so some schools will expect you to take a boatload of loans.
Also, it is REALLY important to visit. Sometimes there is a vibe about a place you just can't get no matter how many books you read. We visited a number of places that, while my daughter thought they were very nice, she just did not see herself fitting in. She said they would be great schools for someone else; in fact, she recommended one or two of them to a few of her friends. It turned out that her favorite school is one
I dragged her to. I thought it would be a fit; she thought it was too far. We are anxiously waiting for an admittance decision and praying for a good aid pkg.
Good luck with your search.