I read almost all the comments on both sites.
The vast majority are quite positive. Even the majority of comments on Niche that gave only 3 out of 5 stars were actually positive. Of the 46 pages of comments, there were only about 5-6 pages negative reviews. Almost every single one was about:
the weather - Did the students notice that they Wooster was in Ohio?
transportation - If so important, why not research before even applying
local area - It’s a small rural town. What do you expect? Go to a college in a city or suburb if you want action.
off-campus dining - Again, what did they expect? I’d never move anywhere to live for 4 years without checking this
campus food - Valid point I think. Young adults are hungry! Give them healthy tasty food!
parking - No car, no problem. But wait … Wooster’s such a huge campus … that 2 block walk was exhausting
party scene - admin and security too strict. So sad.
administration - Sounds like admin needs to improve how they respond to students
diversity - Kids should have read the data on Common Data Set or nces collegenavigator. That could be a matter of perception / opinion. Admission could be making a strong effort to recruit and think they’re doing a good job compared to other campuses, but still numbers are below the ideal
security - campus police presence too strong
security - negative interactions with some local citizens
I also notice more positive comments in most of these categories than negative.
The negative comments are related to the issues that bothered you the most: location and social life. I didn’t notice any negative complaints about advisers and only a couple about professors. Academics are almost universally praised. It seems that Wooster’s main issue is it’s location and not all considered the town to be a ‘dump’. Some students were discontent about maters that could easily be discovered if they’d done the depth of research I think such a huge investment warrants and put more thought into it. For example, someone was upset about the lack of college fairs. There were a few students who were upset that campus police would bust them for under age drinking and drug possession. That’s very immature. The complaint that I saw repeated again and again through the years and that caught my attention concerned incidents on Beall Avenue and with a certain sub-culture within the town. That would be very unpleasant for the students subjected to the abuse. I’d like to learn more about that. I imagine the increased campus security is in response to such occurrences. Some students felt the student culture was unwelcoming, but then the majority of reviewers loved the social life on campus.
This makes a point for researching your options very carefully and thinking carefully about your compatibility with the various facets of a campus. This requires some level of self knowledge, but many young people lack sufficient perspective. Research a lot and get a lot of advice before deciding to spend thousands of dollars and at least 4 years of your life on anything, anywhere.
You can always assume that admissions are marketing the campus, but also looking for students who are a good match and will stick around for 4 years. No one likes unhappy students. It’s not good for campus moral or business.