FRAMINGHAM -- Last year, a high school student from Maine was interested in studying medicine in college. Like many students, she didn't want to travel very far from home. She figured attending a college close to home would be less than expensive than attending one outside of New England.

So she looked at Northeastern University, which offered her $12,000 a year in financial aid, Boston University, which offered her $13,500, and Boston College, which offered $11,200.

College Solutions, a company which works to find the right collegiate fit at the right price for high school students, recommended Emory University. Located in Atlanta, the private college is clearly not close to New England, but it offered the student $25,600 in financial aid.

"And it's an exceptional school for pre-med," says Larry Dannenberg, vice president of College Solutions. "In fact, the Wall Street Journal just rated Emory one of the top 14 feeder schools for the top law, medicine and business schools in the country for graduate work."

The student chose Emory and saved close to $60,000 after taxes. Her tuition ended up costing less than a state college.

"Here's a case where the student not only improved her position academically but improved it financially way above the state school by choosing the right school," Dannenberg says.

It's also a case that debunks the myths that attending a college closer to home is going to be less expensive than one farther away and attending a state college is going to be less expensive than a private college. The company also gives a failing grade to the assumption that the more income a family has the less money in financial aid the student can expect to receive.

College Solutions, which operates offices in Framingham and South Portland, Maine, has been debunking these myths for 10 years while establishing a consistent client base.

Last year, the company put 300 students in 244 colleges in 44 states and over the years its students have more often than not remained in their college of choice. Its 3 percent freshmen dropout or transfer rate is considerably lower than the national average of 27 percent.

On average, in 2003, its students also received $18,000 in financial aid while the average income of its clients was $80,000. One-third earned more than $150,000. Of the aforementioned financial aid, $14,000 came in the form of grants, not loans. It's money they don't have to pay back.

College Solutions achieves its results by focusing on three components: college selection, student interviews with college admissions staffs and financial aid.

Its services include a free initial consultation with the family as well as student and parent interviews. It creates a school list and revises it regularly, advises students on course and activity selection, creates a school visit strategy and revises the school list based on these visits.

It also develops a financial strategy geared to maximize aid, coaches students on college interviews, offers unlimited college interviews at its offices and edits applications and essays. In addition, it completes financial aid forms, reviews college acceptances, analyzes financial aid offers and review options for paying for college.

"Given that the average family is going to be dealing with the two most important things in their life -- their children and their money -- this is a very important item," says Dannenberg. "And when most families are looking at between $100,000 and $150,000 for college over four years, this is probably going to be the single biggest expenditure they're going to make outside of their home and, in some cases, including their home."

Adds Jeffrey Morrison, the company's president and founder, "It's how we prepare the students to make these decisions and how we mentor them through the process that enables us to be successful. Because if the kids weren't happy, if the parents weren't getting money when they needed it and if the students weren't doing well, we wouldn't be doing well."

The initial consultation sets the tone. "We ask students what's important to them and we spend more time listening than talking," says Morrison. "We know the kids don't know everything they want out of college, but they do know what they like and don't like, and this begins the whole emphasis on the fit of the school -- making the right fit because we feel that's the most intrinsically important part of this."

Adds Dannenberg, "We make this very clear: Our client is the student. The parents' opinion is important but not nearly as important as the student's. That means the student has to take on some responsibility and that's an important aspect of this. When we do the interview, if we don't click with the student, the process doesn't work, in which case we won't take the student on as a client, which is why we do a free initial consultation. We want this to work and it's a long-term relationship."

If a student does sign on as a client and becomes one of the 3 percent who drops out or transfers, College Solutions will begin the process again free of charge. "We view that more as our fault than their fault," says Dannenberg.

On the fiscal front, the company focuses on the total cost of graduation. "It's not the price of the college, it's what the college costs you," says Morrison. Students also need to factor in lost wages if it takes them longer than four years to graduate.

College Solutions concentrates on getting students grants and stresses the importance of starting the financial aid process early. "Anyone can get a loan," says Dannenberg. "Grants are what most people are interested in and what we focus on is where the gold is. That means the money the colleges have. The trick is knowing which colleges have money and which ones don't.

"A lot of people focus on athletic scholarships, but they represent only 2 percent of the money handed out. There's a lot more money for academic scholarships."

And you don't need to be class valedictorian to get a grant, adds Morrison. "We have some clients who are mediocre students who are getting $8,000 and $10,000 a year in merit money because of the fit," he says. "About 60 percent of the people who come to us who don't think they'll ever get financial aid get some merit or scholarship money when we're done."

As good as College Solutions is in the financial aid department, its real strength lies in the admissions process, says Dannenberg. "Most kids pick out schools for the wrong reasons -- 'My friend's going there, my boyfriend, my girlfriend,'" he says. "A parent at one of our seminars asked, 'How do you deal with the boyfriend-girlfriend issue?' So we asked everybody to stand up and then we asked everybody to sit down who is no longer having a relationship with the same person they had when they were 18. Three people were left standing out of 250.

"What comes out of this process is most kids have preconceived notions and most guidance programs begin with two functions: the size of the school and what they want to major in, but more than 90 percent of students change their major and most students have no perception of size.

Adds Morrison, "When we ask kids in college what was of interest to you when you picked a school that in retrospect turned out not to be important, the answer that leads the list is skiing, followed by being near a city. But most kids can't afford to go skiing every weekend and most kids don't recognize there's enough going on campus that they typically don't have to leave. Plus, most kids don't have the money to go into the city a lot anyway.

"When these selection programs begin and they're predicated on false premises, it's no wonder that one of three kids transfers."

College Solutions is about setting the record straight, Morrison continues. "We get kids talking about the process and we have them do visits," he says. "And there are so many mistakes made there, too. Kids go on their visits during the summer because it works out well for the parents, but kids aren't seeing the show. They're seeing the beehive, not the bees."

The interviews with college admissions staffs also give students a feel for a particular school even before a visit, says Morrison. It also gives colleges a chance to meet the students.

As to what these colleges are looking for in a student, the priority goes beyond grades, according to Morrison. "They're looking for kids who are going to make a difference, kids who are special, kids who can grow as people, as students and as professionals," he says. Adds Dannenberg, "They're looking for kids who are going to participate in life."

Dannenberg notes that with students from 60,000 high schools trying to get into 4,000 colleges, the competition is obviously going to be keen. "Where do you differentiate yourself? No one wants to call it marketing but when we start with a client, that's what we're doing. We're making sure they've covered all the bases that will be of interest to colleges," he says.

Some factors in the admissibility equation students can't change, such as the competitiveness of their high school. "However, if you're going to a top high school," Dannenberg continues, "and not taking (advanced placement) courses or honors courses -- and they're offered -- and you have a straight-A average, the question that's going to get asked is, 'Why not? Why are you not stretching yourself?'"

Morrison, who has been in the college admissions business for 24 years during which he's placed 6,000 students in higher education, started the company in Maine and opened the Framingham office with Dannenberg a year ago.

While Morrison says about five firms in the country do what College Solutions does, they work on a much smaller scale. Others offering college placement assistance don't bring the total package to the table, such as knowledge of the schools and financial aid, that College Solutions does, he says.

"A lot of people try to do this as a sprint," concludes Dannenberg. "They answer a bunch of questions and they say they're done, but it's not done. Anybody who has ever dealt with teenagers finds that life changes. It's anything but a constant. What we do with the students is we take them through a process of discovery. They may start the process thinking one thing. What's important is where they end up, where they'll be happy and successful."