Great advice. I definitely agree that one should let your student know how much you are willing or able to contribute. I also agree to help your student find a safety school that academically and financially will work for him/her, but if you can afford application fees “throw a wide net” and have them apply to schools that are reaches in both categories. You never know what might happen. Students should take the lead in the college search, but realistically many of your juniors and even seniors aren’t as interested as you think they should be, or too busy to really investigate college options. Help them if they aren’t. Put a list together of good schools and then have them take a look at it, and then force them to take college visits to a few of them and see what they like and don’t like. December of their senior year (when most applications are due) comes really fast!