Some thoughts from a dad who helped put 3 kids through college in the last 10 years, and the forth just started this spring.
1. Most kids should be able to start college with one year or more of college credit at the start. Mine had between 1 and 2 years. The sooner a kid knows where they want to go to college they can navigate the in coming credit game to help them save money. My son worked directly with admissions to make sure Dual Credit/AP/Expanded Options classes would be a accepted and at what level. It does not do a kid that much good if they enter college with a ton of elective credit. My daughter just started this fall with 2 years of college credit earned in high school with about 1/2 applied toward required classes.
3 ACT/SAT tests still matter more than grades. Grades are important but high test scores turn heads, and kids can take these test several times to improve scores.
4. All a college degree really does is help you get your first job, the rest is on you. Its important to know the percentage of the most recent graduates that are working and how much they earn. This is a measure of a school's ROI. Also where do the graduates go to work?
5. In-State is not always cheapest. None of my kids when to school in-State. One went to a private school 1,200 miles away, the other 3 choose out of state public schools that were cheaper than in-state in Oregon. If your Kid wants to be a future engineer and or scientist (and isn't going to Rose-Hulman) check this school out
http://www.sdsmt.edu/About/Why-Mines/Great-Value/. My son just graduated from SDSM&T this spring in 3 years and is now in a paid graduate research position at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, working toward his PHD. He loves pure science and is pursuing medical research. The smallness of SDSM&T allowed him to get experience that a large college would not afford a undergraduate.