Parents and students recognize the value of a college degree. Increasingly, they are borrowing large sums of money to invest in the future. Their choices about how to save for college, where to attend college, how much and from where to borrow for college, and how to repay their loans, have grown more complex. Yet families work with incomplete pricing and value information as they make one of the most important investments in their lives. Improved information will not only help families but also serve as a catalyst for reform and innovation in higher education. In this research, the authors use a "college-bound decision tree" to examine the major decision-points for families as they: (1) save for college; (2) apply for college; (3) pay for the college that they attend, and in many cases; (4) repay their loans after college.