I’m helping one of my kids with a decision between two schools, and am encouraging them to make lists of “I must take these courses to graduate!” / “Oh, I can take these courses?!” for their projected major at both of the schools. As decision time is getting tight, I figured I’d check with everyone here to see if there were any other (more effective) approaches you used when evaluating academic programs. Any suggestions? Or just dive in to the course catalog / major handbook?
I made the Must Take list for my S25, to compare two similar but not identical majors at his top two choices (S25 was too busy trying to get late assignments in for the third quarter… 
) I thought the must take comparison was very useful and interesting, as it showed (to me) the different in focus between the two programs. S25 could care less, never even looked at it.
What he DID find helpful and interesting though - on the must take chart I also included which classes were covered by AP credit (or estimated AP credit from this year). That was more interesting to him so he could see where he might have time to add a minor or pursue something interesting but not related, if AP credit had cleared enough space for him.
I also set up the must take list in two different views - the first was trying to compare like course to like course, then showing what else was required by each. The second was comparing the suggested course progressions (so like Fall Freshman year, Spring Freshman Year). The first view showed how the programs were similar and different, the second showed more how he could have room to potentially add other classes or maybe study abroad.
(Also, yes, I’m a little OCD with the charts… why do you ask? 
)
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That seems to be the most obvious way to check the requirements and options at each college.
Don’t forget to consider general education requirements.
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Also make sure to understand how often classes are offered…some aren’t offered every semester or even every year. This availability isn’t always obvious in the catalog, you have to go to the listing of current courses for the current and previous semesters to get at that (these are often public, but not always.) Prereqs will be more updated in the course registration system too.
Another thing that can be interesting to do is to look at what types of research the profs in the subject areas of interest are doing and see if there is a better match that way. Good luck!
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The only “must take” my son cared about was FL requirements. FL was a nightmare for him in HS. He looked at the options in the catalog and whether or not he could fulfill the credits by taking transferable summer and winter classes at CC. He decided he could live with 3 semesters of FL.
As far as his major, he hadn’t fully decided what he would major in before starting college. His main determining factor was liking the school enough to want to spend 4 years there.
Many students don’t go in with a declared major, so I don’t get the sense that must take v.s. can take is a huge deciding factor.
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You can also look to see what concentrations and minors can be offered and if undergrads can take graduate level courses as upperclassmen.
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Actually FL is a big one. My premed kid was very adamant against FL taking time and energy from her science studies. She hit jackpot in that area. She was able to take exam and get out of 3 semesters of FL requirement that opened schedule for other classses. She is considering to get a minor in that FL for fun (only 2 classes necessary). She initially refused to attend school that did not have her “preferred " language if FL was a requirement for graduation.
Another must that drived us crazy was religious classes… She was counting every second when she will be done with them… 2 are done, one more to go…Approach for surviving was"imagine that it is required Bio class where you need to remember some facts…
just study and forget next day…”
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FL requirement was a big one for both my kids too. Neither wanted to do any FL in college, so schools like Tufts fell off the list early.
100%. Some students want more gen eds and some want less. It’s also become apparent to me from a couple of things I’ve read in the last couple of days that at some schools (no idea how widespread this is) a particular course can satisfy more than one gen ed requirement so that may be of interest too (similar to the AP credit comment above, allowing the student to take more of what interests them).
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I would consider the major requirements plus any other distribution requirements. As Mwfan1921 suggested, also look at what is actually offered during a semester since it will be less than the listings in the course catalog. The major handbook should provide good information, and I think that is sometimes where professors on sabbatical are listed or maybe that is the course catalog (can be a surprising number). And consider what happens if they might change their major. Good luck!
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For some undecided students, this can be a more difficult problem if the possible majors of interest have many or sequenced frosh/soph prerequisites, so that careful course selection from the beginning is needed to keep options open.
One other consideration: some colleges have “larger” versus “smaller” courses in terms of credit value and workload, effectively meaning that students take fewer or more courses to graduate.
For example, colleges may have a typical schedule being 5 3-credit courses, 4 4-credit courses, or 3 5-credit courses per term. Quarter or trimester systems also add variations. Some students may prefer fewer “larger” courses while other may prefer more “smaller” courses.