Our kid wanted to attend college far from home. We actually didn’t want her to apply anywhere unless she thought she would want to live there for four years. We did tours of a large number of schools combined with vacations and family visits during her sophomore and junior years of high school. I understand this isn’t financially possible for everyone…but we didn’t want her to waste application time and money applying to colleges she simply didn’t like.
She initially only applied to three colleges. Well vetted before applications were even sent.