1. Leverage technology to engage students in the college search process. You can’t find true love in the phone book and you can’t find the perfect pair of jeans by trying on every pair in the mall. (Well ok, you can, but it might take awhile.) Turn the tables on printed A-Z guidebooks by giving students the opportunity to express their preferences and criteria first. The CampusCompare MatchMe meter returns great matches from more than 2,500 schools on its website.

2. Get parents on your side by suggesting alternatives to costly college visits. High schoolers can a get a real sense of college life through reviews, videos, and comments posted by current students. This stays credible with the teens and saves parents an expensive campus visit.

3. Introduce students to schools they haven’t heard of. It’s easy to fall into the rut of recommending the same 10 or 20 schools each year to seniors. With CampusCompare, you can search hundreds of schools by academic major, school size, SAT/ACT range, campus location etc. to find a better match than those same old 10 or 20 schools. Remember, the right college match could be in another time zone—or right in your backyard.

4. Help keep students on track with application deadlines. CampusCompare’s nifty calendar tool is automatically fed with important date reminders, such as test dates and application deadlines. Help your students get the stress out of their schedules by using this online resource to get them organized.

5. Give deluded students a reality check. A lifetime dosage of “you can do anything!” will certainly workwonders for John or Jane Senior’s self-esteem, but it can also cause them to reach out of their league and be destined for a rude awakening. A round or two of rolling the dice with CampusCompare’s “What Are My Chances?” tool can soften the blow by preparing him to see realistic acceptance odds.

We’ve long known that college is a very expensive investment. But we also know that applying to college can be rather costly, too. These days, it’s not uncommon for a student to apply a dozen or more schools. Let’s do the math:

12 (number of apps) X $50 (average cost of application) = $600

Yikes.

When I applied to college, I narrowed my options down to four schools that were perfect for me, a budding English and theatre double major. I applied to the four and was accepted by all of them (Wagner College, Skidmore College, Franklin & Marshall College, and New York University, in case you were wondering). Was it luck? Maybe, but I also like to think that I did my research so well that there was no question: I was a good fit for the schools, and the schools were good fits for me.

Are high school students crazy for applying to so many schools? Not necessarily. There’s no doubt that by sending out more apps, you are increasing your chances of getting in somewhere. But you don’t just want to go somewhere; you want to go to a school that will bring out the best in you for the next four years.

There’s no magic formula for finding the best schools for you—although a visit to the CampusCompare website can help make your research a whole lot easier.

In narrowing down your list of applications, why not ask yourself the following questions?

Am I applying to this school because I truly want to go there? Your dream school is called that for a reason—it’s the one that’s on your mind constantly. That doesn’t mean that the others schools on your list have to pale in comparison. In addition to your dream school, you should apply to a number of schools that have your desired major, as well as a campus environment that will allow you to thrive. If you know that you can only think clearly amidst a backdrop of amber waves of grain, then you probably won’t be happy at a school in a large city, no matter how high it is in the rankings. Likewise, if you can’t fall asleep without the buzz of traffic outside your window, then the hum of crickets just won’t do it for you.

Am I applying to this school to annoy Mom and Dad? Do you really want to go to that school in a different time zone, or are you just exercising your soon-to-be freedom as a young adult? Are you applying to a school because it has a great program, or is it because it is the football rival of your dad’s alma mater? Applying to college is an emotional process, but not just for the high school student; parents are equally torn apart over their children’s school choices, particularly when it comes to campus location.

Am I applying to this school to appease Mom and Dad? Ah, here we have the flip side of the above dilemma. Are you applying to a school because you truly want to get a degree there, or is it that your mother went there, as well as her mother, and her mother, etc.? Your family will eventually get over the break in tradition; you, however, might not get over letting your family dictate one of the most important decisions in your life. Don’t rebel for the sake of rebelling, but do make the choice that’s right for you.

Am I applying to this school to make my friends/classmates jealous? I remember clearly the valedictorian of my high school class looking rather silly as she waved around her application materials to Harvard. I didn’t bat an eyelash, because A) I was too involved with my own college apps and B) Harvard didn’t have the exact program I was looking for, so why would I envy someone else who was applying there? Colleges can reject you, but they won’t reject your request to apply. Don’t confuse college applications with designer clothes; the schools themselves may be a symbol of status and academic prowess, but the mere application form should not be.

Am I applying to this school “just to see if I can get in?” If you’ve got lots of money to burn, then by all means apply to all of the Ivies just for the satisfaction of telling people that you applied (but please see above scenario first). I much prefer the approach of applying to schools that I would have an actual intention of attending, then using the money I saved to buy a cute outfit for the first day of classes or cool stuff for my dorm room.

Again, applying to more schools increases your chances in theory, but only if the schools chosen are a good fit. CampusCompare will help you find the best fit for you, so keep checking the blogs and the site for great info.

Want to save some money? Check out CampusCompare’s new tool, What Are My Chances?, debuting this week, to see your odds of acceptance to the schools on your list.