If you are a high school senior who has yet to decide where you’re going to college, you are most likely joining many families who are heading into a weekend of tough decisions.
 
As the May 1 deadline of making a college choice approaches, I want to call your attention to some resources at The Times that may help you make your decision.

Guidance Office: Answers to Your Questions on Making the Final College Decision
 
In The Choice blog’s recent Decision-Time Q. and A., Marie Bigham, a former college admissions officer and veteran college counselor, and Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on financial aid, answered readers’ questions about comparing financial aid offers and deciding where to enroll in the blog’s virtual Guidance Office, a forum for college applicants and their families seeking expert advice.
 
I invite you to visit or revisit the five-part series, in which the panelists offered advice about college fit, comparing value, weighing prestige, and paying for college:

Part 1 | Higher Grades vs. More Prestige • Positioning Oneself for Graduate School • Reporting Financial Hardship

Part 2 | Private University vs. State Institution • Are Non-Ivies Worth the Cost?

Part 3 | Do Rankings Matter? • Deciding From the Heart, Romantically Speaking • Recalculating the Expected Family Contribution

Part 4 | N.Y.U., Northeastern or Rutgers? • Parental Vetoes • Financial Aid After Freshman Year • Harvard, Princeton or Williams? • Work-Study Aid

Part 5 | Replacing Need-Based Aid With Merit Aid • Calculating Savings From International Baccalaureate Credits • Calculating Your Family Contribution • Options for Undecided Students
 
For the introductory post, which includes links to the five-part series, read “Seeking Your Questions on Making the Final College Decision.”

Wealth Matters Column: Measuring College Prestige vs. Cost of Enrollment Wealth Matters Measuring College Prestige vs. Cost of Enrollment
 
Paul Sullivan writes about strategies that the wealthy use to manage their money and their overall well-being.
 
You might also consider how other Times readers are dealing with their decision-making process. Readers are still responding, for example, to a Wealth Matters column by Paul Sullivan that examines the cost and value of an education at a prestigious institution. Mr. Sullivan writes:
 
While some students will be able to go to college only if they receive financial aid and others have the resources to go wherever they want, most fall into a middle group that has to answer this question: Do they try to pay for a college that gave them little financial aid, even if it requires borrowing money or using up their savings, because it is perceived to be better, or do they opt for a less prestigious college that offered a merit scholarship and would require little, if any borrowing? It’s not an easy decision.
 
“It’s not just the sticker price and the net costs,” said Sarah Turner, professor of economics and education at the University of Virginia. She added, “How likely is it that you will get into medical school or law school or have some other opportunities” if you choose the more prestigious college?
 
That’s the rational argument. In these decisions, though, emotion often wins out, and it can lead to the slippery slope of excessive borrowing.