this is just a general question, and i’m not sure if it varies college by college but - are admissions people generally looking for concrete reasons (e.g., small college in a big city) or abstract reasons (e.g., the intellectual drive of students) why you want to go there? thank you!
Just general advice: use the why question to show what you will bring to the college-- that is, what YOU are going to give THEM if accepted.
So not: “It has always been my dream to attend -_______” - or “I really want to attend school in the city” …
But more along the lines of matching a particular strength or interest you have with something special about the school offerings. That achieves two things – it helps answer the ad com’s question of why they should accept you over other applicants, and it also shows a more convincing reason for you to be interested in the school, as you are tying your goals to something specific the school offers.
That being said, my daughter was accepted to Barnard a decade ago with a “why Barnard” response that mentioned her desire to study linguistics … when neither Barnard nor Columbia offered a linguistics major. So it may not make all that much of a difference what you say if the rest of the application get the message across.