<p>It is great you DS want to take control of the process! I do agree with other posters that you need to discuss financial reality with him. </p>
<p>With my DS it was a great experience going through the college application journey. We both learned a lot about each other. He also realized that he didn’t want to play sports in college (3 sport varsity) and wanted to focus on academics midway through year. He had a wide variety of schools to select from and just completed a happy freshman year.</p>
<p>With DD we are primarily looking at merit schools. She will make ultimate decision of what schools she applies to in August, but I am doing research to make sure financially it is realistic.</p>