I second the "use the counseling office" post. My sons absolutely adored the gal who was the resources person for this stuff. She had shelves and shelves of college catalogs.

Here's my advice : if your kid can hack it, keep those grades WAY up and get on the honors track. My one on son had 27 credits waived as a result of his AP testing. That saves us more than a semester of tuition. Plus, good performance opens the door to merit awards.

WE pretty much let our kids choose where they wanted to go ( within reason)