Definitely agree with @anastasiasmom on the financial picture! I’ve been through this twice (MT then Acting) and D1 had a coach who included schools that would be affordable for us when they made her list. D2 did not want to use a coach, and we were naive in what we thought would be affordable (she didn’t apply to CMU or NYU knowing they were expensive/not known for giving aid). D2 ended up having to decline some really good offers/waitlists because we did not want to take out huge loans.
Now for more positive advice! Set up a new email account just for college. You will get TONS of college emails! We didn’t do this with D1, and there were times she missed an email here or there. We did it with D2 and it made things so much easier! She and I both had access to it (her preference), and I kept all of the login info on the spreadsheet.