Given that there are many students in the same boat( trying to decide between schools when they won’t have the opportunity to visit), I’d suggest reaching out to your individual admissions counselor (found on college admissions pages) and see if they can connect you with current students to get your questions answered. They also have a program called Newhouse Ambassadors to help prospective students get a better insight into the college; perhaps they’ll find a way to make them available via email now that school isn’t in session.
Newhouse at SU is very impressive; the internships, career connections and shadowing opportunities are invaluable and something I wouldn’t easily dismiss.
As someone above said, Syracuse is a big school and there are so many things to do besides greek life.
You can check out instagram accounts for professional clubs, volunteer clubs, social organizations that you might be interested in (@newhousesu, @cuseactivities, @orangeseeds44 are some examples). This is another way to get a sense of the daily life on campus.
I think that college tours are very overrated. Thinking that you are going to like a place is 90% of the way to actually liking it. Don’t take a gap year. Make a decision, go with it and don’t look back.
Although I like @Eeyore123 's advice in post #21 above, I think that you can “look back” if you attend Seattle University for your first year on a 75% scholarship. If unhappy, then it is easy to transfer to another school–especially for full-pay students.
If you attend Syracuse University, then I agree that there is no looking back as the scholarship will be no longer available at Seattle University.
It’s clear that OP wants to attend Seattle, and that almost all posters are against a gap year. However, when a HS senior says they are worried that attending a selected college would be “stupid”, that is a red flag. And that advises caution.
And the OP hasn’t indicated what the COA of the respective schools would be, or if s/he prefers Seattle’s quarter system to Syracuse’s semester system, and in fact has never seen Seattle or Syracuse and knows no one who attends either school. The decision to attend is apparently based in large part on internet research. And is that the way to go? Maybe, but not in a case where OP has already used the word “stupid” regarding their decision.
And yes, s/he could transfer if there are second thoughts, but there is no guarantee the transfer could be to a school the OP wants to attend.