How should a kid know what college is the best?

It would be helpful to know what major you're interested in first.

Once you've narrowed in on a major or a field of interest, you could check the rankings of universities and the statistics on the admitted students of that particular major on websites like https://www.usnews.com/rankings or https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings

Though an academic ranking may not tell us everything about a university, it can be used as a rough estimate of how competitive it is to get into.

There are many other factors outside academics that make a university great. For example, the location, the access to food, the dorm experience, and student life in general.

To get an overall understanding of a university, you can check the campus life/student experience page on most of their websites. Another helpful website that ranks universities based on non-academic factors is https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/best-colleges/