You must have visited USC before students returned. I’m sure the energy will very different after school starts (Monday).
We live locally and have the same impression about LMU and Chapman. Neither has much of a college community. Chapman is growing academically but it isn’t the same as the other campuses you visited.
We never toured Duke in person. My daughter was accepted in 2020, so all of the admitted student presentations were on Zoom. Admitted student presentations everywhere were all very last minute and not nearly as polished as virtual presentations are now. Because of that, the students often weren’t prepped and didn’t have filters or a script like they do at in-person programs. What I remember is, in just about every Duke info session, they spoke about imposter syndrome and the fact that everyone goes through it. That was a big turn off for us.
My daughter asked about changing to a major in a different college. The students said it was virtually impossible. After the session, someone from admissions reached out to my daughter and told her that, based on her application, if she wanted to change into a different college, they could make it happen. I’m not sure if that is still the case. In 2020, enrollment was down, students were taking gap years and choosing local colleges rather than moving across country. It may have just been that they needed students regardless of what college they were in.