For each decision, there is a balance between the investment of time and money vs. benefit and long term consequences.
You know, I read once about this guy who budgeted for Christmas presents by assigning each family member a number from 1 to 10 (not ranking per se, like each kid was a 6 or whatever), then adding it all up, dividing his budget by that total, and multiplying the resulting number by each person's... shall we say, gift index.
Sometimes I feel like you almost have to choose a college that way: cost index times learning index times best fit index (and times prestige index, if you're that sort of person). Better than putting them all in a hat, I guess.
On a side note, I thought the quote, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there" was the Cheshire Cat, but I was wrong -- although sometimes it feels like this whole mess just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. :-\
