Another difference in the transition from high school to college versus other school transitions is that the student typically has to face cost constraints now, where s/he did not before (the parents may have, in situations where paying private school tuition or buying/renting a house in a desired public school zone had household finance implications).
This makes it all the more important for the parents to know their household finances up front and communicate the cost constraints to the student before the application list is made. There are too many sad stories in April (from both parents and students) where cost turns dream (or other) school admissions into financial rejections because cost was not considered from the beginning.