Mistakes I Made When Choosing A University

It's coming to that point again where I have to make the careful decision of which university I should choose, and considering the whopping great mistake I made the first time round I want to make sure I make a better decision this time round. I've started thoroughly researching the universities I've chosen and assessing their best qualities (well, the best qualities for me). As a part of this decision process I feel that it will be useful to note down the mistakes I made when choosing a university so that I can make sure that I avoid them this time round. I might also do a post rounding up everything that I felt was wrong with my experience so I can try and prevent this from happening again.

1. The university was too far away. Well, it wasn't an absolutely huge distance, like the other end of the country, but it was about a two and a half to three hour car journey which made it difficult for my family to come and see me regularly or for me to see them regularly, which I really needed. I've already avoided this by applying to local universities only.
2. The accommodation was ages away from the university. There was a bus service provided but this service took around twenty minutes and cost a fortune. Also, while it was regular there was still a bit of a wait, and it was prone to filling up pretty quickly. Being so far from the university caused me to feel quite detached from it, which had a significant impact on the way I perceived the university and how much I enjoyed it. I have, again, avoided this problem by applying to campus universities only so I can live pretty much within the university itself. 
3. Focusing way too much on league tables. The university I first attended was pretty high on the league tables when I was applying (it ended up dropping quite a bit within the space of a year.). However, it also had lower grade requirements than other universities in a similar position, which led me to believe that it was perfect for me. In fact, I think this was probably the biggest mistake I made, since it made me adamant that I was going to go to that university, resulting in me dismissing all the other universities I applied to. It turns out that it was a load of spin anyway- they just wanted to make the university look good and cared more about reputation and money than the students. I'm avoiding league tables and they're certainly not going to have any influence on my decision this time- I'll choose the university that I genuinely think I'll be happiest at.
4. Not giving the course much attention. I was lucky that I largely enjoyed what I studied at this university, but I also realise that the course is a huge part of your university experience (actually it's what you really should be going to university for), so it's vital that you choose the course that you feel you will enjoy the most. I was an idiot for not doing thorough research into courses before applying to university and after I had applied and was choosing between the five unis I'd chosen, I'm giving the courses and English departments a lot more attention now and this time they will be a major part of my decision (unless they both look really good and I can't really say that one seems better to me).
5. Not visiting enough universities. The only universities I visited out of the ones I applied to were the university I was sure I wanted to go to and one other that I was called for an 'interview' at (but had no intention of attending). The latter was awful and I hated it, which only made the former seem even better. I should have visited, or at least tried to visit, all of the universities I had applied to and maybe even a few in the summer before I applied to university. I think this would have been the best way of comparing and contrasting the different atmospheres and figuring out which university really was the right one for me. It would also have helped lessen the bias I had towards the university I knew I wanted to choose, as I might have been less likely to succumb to the appeals of the atmosphere there if I'd experienced universities with similar or better atmospheres. I've already visited one of the universities and will visit the other in a few days time.
6. Not doing thorough research. I think this was another massive slip up. I should have scoured the websites of all the universities I wanted to apply to and the universities I had applied to in order to really get a feel for them, as well as to discover stand out points of the universities that really appeal to me and could strongly influence my decision to go there. Unlike the first time, this time I have thoroughly sifted through the websites and made lists of everything the universities offer, so I can take all of this into account when making my decision. I realise that this isn't something I would have been able to do in as much detail as I'm doing now since I had much less time and far more universities, but if I'd started earlier (maybe around the summer time rather than October, even though I didn't know what I wanted to study, I could still have checked out the universities) but a condensed version of this would still have been hugely beneficial and might have prevented me from making such a stupid, rushed decision. I feel more comfortable now having done a lot more research, though my decision is still hard because they both seem really good!

There were probably other mistakes that I made but I think I'll leave it there since these are the most significant and had the biggest impact, and would probably have led to a different outcome if they had been properly taken into consideration. This post is largely for reference since I will be making my decision very soon.