None of it really matters. Visit each college until it's just obvious. "I could spend 4 years here and be happy" Stay overnight with a freshman. Get a feel for how things are run. Talk to as many freshman and seniors as possible, candidly, in private. Go to some sample classes.
Don't just take a tour or investigate it online. I chose my college because the people going there were all pretty hard core geeks. And undergrads could get paid to work for Masters and PHD students on their thesis. (I wanted hands on experience) This, naturally, made having a killer social life a little more challenging, unless your definition of a "killer social life" is playing net trek at 3:00am on a friday night in your dorm's computer room.
None of it really matters. Visit each college until it's just obvious.
My son forms some of his impressions of colleges from summer program classmates older than he who have already gone off to college. His current favorite college is the one where most of the summer classmates he likes best have gone. I certainly agree that campus visits are a great idea, and some colleges formalize those for admitted students. They can be expensive for families (like mine) that live in the middle of the country if the colleges being considered are mostly off on one coast or the other.
On the one hand, I think too much emphasis is placed on going to the one best college -- for most students, there is likely more than one good fit.
On the other hand, the cost of doing campus visits is going to be a tiny part of the cost of their education, which is, itself, a foundation for their adult life. I think the advice to tackle one coast at a time and make it a road trip is a good one. A week spent doing that is probably at least as valuable as a week spent in high school senior year.
When I was applying to transfer away from the state school I spent my freshman year , was wait-listed by my first choice and we paid the deposit it my second choice. I ended up being accepted by my first choice, but I wasn't going to go, because, among other things, we'd already paid the deposit at the other school. My father put it in perspective for me. The deposit was small change compared to the total cost of my college education.
Pick a coast. Wait for temperate weather. Borrow a car. Arrange with admissions departments to crash with students. Give yourself a couple of weeks. Heck, why not a couple of months?
I did this with a friend of mine looking to transfer schools. She visited 4 or 5 schools on the east coast this way.
A road trip is a lower cost way to travel.. though compared to the cost of college, and the greater cost of picking the wrong one, at least a visit to the final choice is worth it. Visiting all the local colleges could be enough of a comparison to that.
Some colleges like Amherst College and Swarthmore College will fly a student out for an all-expenses paid weekend. If he is not yet a senior, have him apply to those weekends (or just look into them for the various schools he is interested in).
A friend of mine went to at least 6 such weekends, though he is a minority student, which makes a difference.
Don't just take a tour or investigate it online. I chose my college because the people going there were all pretty hard core geeks. And undergrads could get paid to work for Masters and PHD students on their thesis. (I wanted hands on experience) This, naturally, made having a killer social life a little more challenging, unless your definition of a "killer social life" is playing net trek at 3:00am on a friday night in your dorm's computer room.