90-95% of an undergraduate’s time is spent on or near campus. That is where the peers, the academics, the parties, and the events will be. As long as the campus and college community is reasonably stimulating, it makes little difference if the school is 500 or 5 miles from a “city”
My alma mater, Oberlin, is reasonably proximate to Cleveland. I don’t remember anyone ever going (except for an occasional concert).