Here’s that post that @Calliene mentioned. @theaterwork , my response which tells how we approached your question is in this thread, but I’ll elaborate more below (sorry if it’s redundant):
I think it’s terrific that you’re starting this now! It is a time-consuming process. We started by determining if D wanted a BA or BFA. D knew she wanted a BFA with more of a conservatory approach (fewer gen ed requirements, and she looked for dreaded math requirements, lol), so that eliminated a lot of schools. Then, we determined the location D desired. D didn’t know what type of physical environment she wanted and ended up concluding that it didn’t matter to her except that she didn’t want rural and she preferred to be near a city. Also, she could see herself on an urban campus as well as a traditional one. Then, we came up with a list of training details, which is what D cared most: high levels of dance available, many approaches to acting taught with a certain way she prefers as a base, voice lessons taught with a classical base but with other styles taught as well, the opportunity to study and perform Shakespeare/classical theatre and film, professional faculty (yes, we looked at bios of whomever we could find), professional opportunities outside of the school, etc. Study abroad was something included on her list as a strong bonus, but it didn’t necessarily keep a school off of the list if these experiences were not available and the other elements were very strong. My D also cared a lot about the type of environment within the program, which was sometimes hard to ascertain, but we dug as deeply as we could into programs which interested her to try to discover it. On top of all of that, a high possibility for a lot of financial aid/scholarships/grants was important (although we left one or two on just in case the stars aligned, as @entertainersmom said). We just made a basic spreadsheet type document with categories such as “voice,” “acting,” “professional opportunities,” and “environment,” and filled in as much as we could for each school. It is a time-consuming process, and it’s a continuous one (so, if you create some sort of spreadsheet system, keep them until the audition and decision process is over), but it is worth it! I love researching, and I sometimes have a hard time sleeping (it gave me something exciting to do then), so I did a lot of it, but D did, as well. We also got valuable insight and input from D’s local vocal coaches (both her current one and one from a place from which we had moved, both of whom know a lot about programs from personal involvement) and her college coach, Chelsea Diehl, who was absolutely wonderful at ascertaining D’s desires and appropriate programs for D based on D’s personality. (In fact, it was final school selection and monologue choice which led us to panic a bit and seek out Chelsea in August of D’s Junior year.)
We didn’t visit any schools until after auditions (except her on-campus auditions) because my D did not want to fall in love with one and have a dream school. This worked for her. Going into auditions, and even after most, she would say, “I can see myself there,” to every school on her list. There were exceptions to this at a few auditions; she didn’t feel connected to a few then (and I guess the feeling was mutual in these instances except for one which accepted her). One school she had expected to be towards the top of her list dropped down considerably after auditioning and touring; it just didn’t feel right. Another dropped from her list during her first class observation as an accepted student. She was open to all of these feelings and ended up with the lovely conclusion that she was looking for something specific, but that she would be fine at most schools. There are so many great programs out there!
Good luck in your search! Maybe if your D develops a list of criterion, you could let us know, and we could throw out some names.