[North Woods]

There doesn't really seem to be a strong consensus about what to do in which scenarios. See for example:

• NY Times 4th Down Bot https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/upsho...d-why.html. This is done for the NFL, but argues that you should essentially always go for it on 4th and 1 while recognizing that coaches are typically much more conservative.
  
• Football Study Hall https://www.footballstudyhall.com/2017/9...onversions. Shows a chart that overall looks like the one posted by Boston Card earlier.
  

The Football Study Hall one does have some interesting stats on frequency of decisions for each college coach using data from 2010-16. Based on those stats it seems he is slightly more conservative on decisions for fourth and short between 30 and 45-yard line: ranked 141 out of 207. However on fourth and short inside the 5 he ranks #45 i.e. he goes for it comparatively more often. Obviously a lot of factors (confidence in kicking game, power running game, game situation all should be factors in evaluating options) but there are at least some statistics as context for perceptions.

[North Woods]

There doesn't really seem to be a strong consensus about what to do in which scenarios. See for example:

• NY Times 4th Down Bot https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/upsho...d-why.html. This is done for the NFL, but argues that you should essentially always go for it on 4th and 1 while recognizing that coaches are typically much more conservative.
  
• Football Study Hall https://www.footballstudyhall.com/2017/9...onversions. Shows a chart that overall looks like the one posted by Boston Card earlier.
  

The Football Study Hall one does have some interesting stats on frequency of decisions for each college coach using data from 2010-16. Based on those stats it seems he is slightly more conservative on decisions for fourth and short between 30 and 45-yard line: ranked 141 out of 207. However on fourth and short inside the 5 he ranks #45 i.e. he goes for it comparatively more often. Obviously a lot of factors (confidence in kicking game, power running game, game situation all should be factors in evaluating options) but there are at least some statistics as context for perceptions.