lawyer

Compose a list of the top 10 elements that are important to you in a college or university. For example: Programs of study ("Majors"); tuition cost ( possibly room/board and travel), size of the school (and number of students), class size (including faculty/student ratio), geographical location, admission criteria (HS grades SAT scores), campus life, reputation of faculty, extra-curricular activities offered. Include any other criteria not mentioned, if it's a factor in your decision.

Assign a value between 1 and 5 to each element. The most important element would receive a 5 and 1 means that it's not really important at all. You can assign the same number to more than 1 element.

Create a list of the colleges and universities that interest you. The College Board provides a free online search function that returns a list of schools that match the criteria you enter. Become a member for free and it will keep your searches and results in an online organizer that you can access anytime. The Institute of Education Sciences has a database available online that you can use to search by state or city, or by type of degree program and institution type.