^ you can add Georgetown and Northwestern to the above list.
Honestly, I have to say that for us nothing beat boots on the ground.
I know my kid pretty well, and I suspected she would like Boston (since it’s where I grew up), but H’s memory of Boston (from 25 years ago when he visited me) were less than stellar. (cold, dreary, “unfriendly” people). He went up there with D and both came away very impressed. It was a 2 bird one stone thing for me-D found that she really liked the city, and H is now ok with her attending school there (at whatever college she picks).
There are a lot of intangibles that you just can’t always figure out until you’re there. For instance, D loved San Francisco and the surrounding area, but she went from wanting to apply in Cali to feeling like it was really too far (we’re in Georgia) for undergrad. That is one long flight.
She’s going up to MD and VA later this month (again with H) and over to Alabama with me, and it’ll be interesting to see her reaction. I have no idea how she’s going to feel about those places, since we’re not very experienced with them, either. She has some very strong positive/negative reactions once she visits-it’s why Duke and UGA fell off her list.
I like the Google walking man on the maps-I like to look at the people we see captured in the pictures, and we’ve used it to narrow down places that we might want to move to next, but honestly, it’s only one data point. We’d never decide where to spend time without going there.
When she was there was a summer program, D loved that little shopping area across the street from Princeton’s campus. Two ice cream shops, Urban Outfitters (or Anthropologie, can’t remember which), and a PaperSource store sort of covered all the bases for her. 
Rice had a similar area near campus. She loved them both!
After a year at a school with a self-contained campus, though, her priorities have changed. Now what she really wants is a CVS, a Wegman’s, and a Target nearby.
Thanks for all the ideas and pointers. It’s not that I don’t expect us to do some visiting - we’ll do as much as our schedules and budget permit - but I don’t want us to take the trouble to visit schools that will fall off the list after one look or, conversely, dismiss others based on population data that may be irrelevant to the actual student experience there.
This thread reminded me of one of my favorite “sometimes you have to see it” stories. My husband was an administrator for a college located in downtown Chicago on Michigan Ave across from Grant Park. One of his work study students was from Panama and hadn’t visited the the campus before enrolling. Turns out he had been drawn to the school based on pictures of Grant Park that the school featured prominently in their brochures.
This is what he was expecting:
http://www.aviewoncities.com/gallery/showpicture.htm?key=kveus9064
This is what he got:
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-trafic-on-south-wabash-avenue-underneath-the-l-in-the-loop-district-50240642.html
He adjusted eventually, but it took a while.
Don’t forget to check out Google Images - perform a Google Search and click on the “Images” tab. A picture is worth a 1000 words. The image also links to its source for further exploration.
Being in a city was very important to my older son. He only applied to universities in cities, and even felt Madison Wisconsin was too small, which surprised me given that State St is so busy. He ended up at Vanderbilt. But, freshman year, he hardly ventured off campus!! There was plenty to keep him busy and entertained on right there. But later, he did benefit from being in a city with an internship with a sports team, and then the over 21s enjoy the lively Nashville nightlife.
Big factor for my kids was vibe or impression they got of student body while visiting which was sometimes very different from what we expected from pre visit research.
We did not have time to visit all of the schools on my son’s list before he sent out apps… After his acceptances started coming in we visited 3 more schools in March and April of his senior year.
I stroll around college towns on Google Street View constantly. I should not do it with essays in my inbox, but…