Re #24 and responses that followed:
In my family’s experience: the more ready the access a school has to the resources of a big city, the more its students rely on the city for their social life, and the less vitality there is on that schools’ campus itself. Everyone fritters off constantly into the city, proportionally diminishing campus life.
Conversely, the more isolated from same a school is, the more its students must make things work right there, hence a generally greater vitality of campus life.
My D2 transferred from a campus located smack in a big city and enjoyed life as a student much more at her subsequent campus-centered school that was not near a big city. She actually found more that she wanted to do, (that she could afford to do), at the second school.
YMMV.