A large number of people do indeed meet their spouse in college, and very often the sort of people with whom you are friends in college are the sort of people you will be friends with throughout life. Class is a factor in America, though one not much discussed. If you are typically middle or upper-middle class in background, you are unlikely to be comfortable at a school in which most of the students come from working class backgrounds. Likewise, if you are a strong Catholic, you might not be comfortable at an evangelical Protestant school or a rabidly leftist or Jewish school (e.g. Brandeis), or vice versa.
The only way to get a good feel about these sorts of issues is to (1) visit when students are around, preferably for an overnight visit, and (2) if possible, see who from which schools (and prep schools) in your area is currently at XYZ college, that could be very indicative of the class orientation of the school.