The Choice blog details 2013 "yields," which are the percentage of students who accept a college's offer of admission. "Most of the yields reported on our far-from-comprehensive list are well below 50 percent, which may indicate an increasing number of options for students who applied to multiple schools. In fact, some admission officers have told me that this is part of the rationale behind placing such large numbers of students on the wait list," the writer reports.

The agency that oversees higher education in Texas has launched a slick website to allow families to evaluate and compare public colleges and universities using measures like enrollment figures, costs and top majors.