Regarding the last post on campus safety, FindTheData.com offers a free to use reference and comparison utility for parents and students.  You can use the search filters on the left to filter by institution name, location, school type, total students, total crime, and major individual crimes.  The individual crime filter lets you know how many reported cases of major crimes occurred in a given year, such as murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, robbery, and burglary.

However, it’s important to note that these are crimes that have been reported on campus.  It’s also useful knowing the crime rate statistics for the city that the college is located in as well.