You will need to create a set of criteria of what is important to you in a 529 plan. Some obvious choices are:
cost. Some plans charge annual fees (about $20 per year) and some don't. All plans charge expenses fees which varies from .19% for Vanguard (i think) to over 1% for some states. Some plans will also charge commissions
investment optiont. Plans vary on what options are offered. Most offer a guaranteed investment option, a stock option and an age-based option where you stock exposure is reduced as you child gets closer to a college.
index or active stock funds.
'fine print' rules. Some plans restrict the withdrawals. For example with NY plan you will have to wait for three years before you can withdraw. Some plans have/had a language that sounded like the penalty on non-qualified WD will be applied to the contributions as well.
you can come up with more things worth checking by reading threads on this board.
A nice shortcut would be to simply look at the plans that are mentioned on this board most often plus your own state plan. I don't think you will miss any good plan this way.
Just my $.02
[This message has been edited by xanuda (edited May 06, 2002).]