I went to my college sight unseen (no money for visits). I basically picked the most prestigious institution I got into - mistaken thinking although I got a fabulous education, graduated in 4 years and it was a great thing for me. If I were visiting for my kids I would be really specific about the conditions in their major. 1) ease of getting into classes 2) condition of science labs including stocking and safety or, for the other kid, condition of art studios. 3) eyeballing the foreign language department to see if it seemed like students could actually become proficient. There are other things you can glean, too. I took a group of underrepresented minority student on an Ivy tour once. One of the kids asked about the percentage of Black students in the student body. The tour guide had zero clue and seemed surprised that anyone would ask. I could literally hear the mental click of all those kids suddenly flipping the switch to HBCUs because the guide gave them the clear impression “you don’t belong”.