to generically shyt-talk a school, recall your past school visitation or if you recently visited a school, and check if they have any building construction
road construction doesn't count because that's done by the state but if there's no building upgrades like ed reed's bethune cookman debacle outside of a bunch of lip service from the school board, that just means they don't give a shyt about your kid and are mostly pocketing the tuition money regardless of its boasted large donation base, then it's even worse
some colleges are blatant at being a money laundering front more than others. outside of the brand new football facilities that get all the headline attention, if the academic buildings/dorms look run down and depleted, smell like mold and look like the 70s, then it's not investing in higher education but a total scam (or a party school if education is not your priority anyways)
if the students complain about random construction on campus, that's a sign of a 'healthy' school because they are supposed to upgrade but pay attention to which buildings and which sections of the university is being upgraded for what their emphasis is or who they are attracting; otherwise, where is all the money going to outside of the flashy football facilities? if state taxes are high or if the student dorms/parking can barely fit the population, why are you checking out that school anyways?
it still kinda baffles me how ohio state has a bigger student population enrollment every year compared to michigan, especially back in the days when michigan had like half the student population compared to that of ohio state, but michigan can claim they have a bigger alumni base...not sure how that math adds up...also, what happens to albino people after high school? they just disappear from society after that