I think there are really 2 things students should not do during this college search process. One is try not to fall in love with just one school. The problem is you really need to create a list of 10 schools where you will be happy. And if you create a list of one school where you will be happy, knowing that many colleges accept maybe only 10-20-30% of applicants, you're setting yourself up for later heartbreak. So keep your heart open to lots of possibilities. Once you have your acceptances in hand, then you can fall in love with a school. And that's the right time to do it. The other thing that I tell students is to not procrastinate. There is a lot of work that goes into this. It's not hard work. But if you're madly trying to submit your applications literally at 11:58 when they're due at midnight and your computer internet connection goes down, you lose. And there's nothing you can do about it. And you can't explain to colleges that you procrastinated. And please-please-please accept you late. It's just too late. So don't procrastinate this process. Make sure you're getting things in a couple days before all your deadlines so if there's any last minute glitch it can be taken care of and you'll still hit their deadline.