What Criteria Should a Young Hacker Apply to College Choice?
cmos: None of it really matters.  Visit each college until it's just obvious.  "I could spend 4 years here and be happy"  Stay overnight with a freshman.  Get a feel for how things are run.  Talk to as many freshman and seniors as possible, candidly, in private.  Go to some sample classes.Don't just take a tour or investigate it online.  I chose my college because the people going there were all pretty hard core geeks.  And undergrads could get paid to work for Masters and PHD students on their thesis. (I wanted hands on experience)  This, naturally, made having a killer social life a little more challenging, unless your definition of a "killer social life" is playing net trek at 3:00am on a friday night in your dorm's computer room.