I’ve been reading a lot of the threads here, and a lot have mentioned specificity when writing essays.
I know that visiting campus is probably one of the best ways to get to know a college from an ‘insider’ perspective, but I may not be able to visit campuses.
I’m doing research and looking on college websites to get to know the school better, but I’m having a bit of a hard time. I mostly find general info about classes, rather than details about professors/classes/research/academic clubs/campus life.
*****Please give some tips/insight on how to get to know colleges more deeply through research/websites!
Thanks! 
1- google deeper. XXX school must have some academic program or area of research or significant ____ that appeals to you. Write on that.
2- email any friend, relative, friend-of-parent who attended yyyy and ask what they loved about it. If the answer resonates with you, include it.
Type in google “… activities”, and it typically guides you to a page that contains all of the student clubs available at … university.
Surf the reddit community for that university.
Check out the craigslist ads of its community. Find a daily newspaper for that city as well and skim it.
Go to RateMyProfessor for that U. No, those are not an accurate assessment of the individual professors’ strengths or weaknesses. However, it can be an excellent index of what the students there think is important.