That's a very valid question, and now that I've made my decision, I keep thinking, "Maybe I should've applied to MIT...maybe I should've applied to Berkeley...my college guidance counselor used to work in CMU admissions, and told me that I would certainly get in--maybe I should've applied there...." But I didn't, here's what happened:

I made the following realizations:

1. People go to college to learn a lot more than Computer Science (my major).

2. As such, I want a college with a great community/environment (and even good gened classes), not just a great CS program.

3. There's something of a rift between academic CS and real-world programming. I'm not saying CS is worthless, but effective programmers need a lot more than an undergrad CS degree.

3.5. Also, if I do want to learn more CS, I can always try to go to MIT/Berkeley/CMU for grad school.

4. With sites like HN, Stack Overflow, and everything that's Googleable--and with decent laptops easily obtainable--it's really easy to teach yourself a lot of programming. I took CS in high school, but know a LOT more than what was taught. Why? Doing stuff on my own time. I see no reason why this can't continue in college.

5. There's many summer opportunities available--internships with Google (or many other places), research with one of my professors (Him, when I was a HS junior: "Additionally, we hope to start summer student research programs in a year or two--the funding...is already there. I in particular would love to have a student enthusiastic about [functional programming] as a researcher."), or even just having 8-16 hours a day to hack on my own projects.

I'm a Christian, so #2 strongly suggested that I should go to a Christian college. I cockily applied to only one school--Wheaton College, IL--and got in EA. It's not a bad school academically (the Princeton Review called it "The Harvard of all Christian schools" (which might be an exaggeration) (PS: Wheaton people jokingly call Harvard "The Wheaton of post-modern secular humanism")), and I really like everything about it besides the academics. Oh, and extra bonuses:

1. I sat in on several CS classes, and a) The classes are small, and the students seem to have excellent relationships with each other and the professor. b) They just got a spanking new science building, which is very very nice.

2. I took a bunch of AP tests, and did very well on them, and as such will almost certainly come in with sophomore standing. If I get a crazy startup going, I can leave college after three years :)

3. My parents told me that I could go wherever I wanted and they'd figure out some way to pay for it (somehow...). Wheaton not only gave me the "Presidential Scholarship" (given to students who make a certain academic cut), but gave me a nice extra scholarship because of my National Merit Finalist standing. This is in addition to need-based aid, I think. Not a full ride, but still "better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick", as my dad would say.

So YMMV, but this is what I'm up to. Good luck!

Edit: I say this not to show off or anything, but to give let you know where I stand academically: 35 ACT, SAT 800 Math, 740 Reading, 630 Writing (oops...), 220 PSAT (I took all those tests only once), 4 on AP Euro sophomore year, 5 on all five APs last year, almost certainly a 5 on three this year, and a 4 or 5 on the two AP Physics C tests. And ~3.54 unweighted GPA at a prep school.