The first thing to do is to determine what you can afford to pay for college. Then you might look at some lists of colleges and decide how much you are willing to pay for some colleges, but not others, if you feel that way. I then suggest running some NPCs on some schools you think are good contenders and find out what the colleges are going to be expecting you to pay. There is no sense in having your student apply to a bunch of schools that are going to expect you to pay more than you can afford or what you are willing to pay. Knowing this up front before your student gets expectations is important. You might also want to run some NPCs of some full need met schools, like Swarthmore, Dartmouth, Cornell, and see what they will say they expect you to pay. Also run an EFC estimator as that is usually the least amount you will get away with paying before getting federal and other aid.
Start getting your student and yourself familiar with the web sites of the schools that are likelies and see what kind of merit and financial aid they offer. Look on commondata.com and see what the stats are for these schools in terms of giving out money.
Make sure you get some schools on board that are affordable and likely to take your student instead of cherry picking lists of long shot possibilities that are often more fun to do.