I have relatives who are not frum and I have watched what they go through in deciding what college they send their kids too. They go with their kids to the open houses to the schools they are interested in and see the campus, the dorm, and the heads. True they are deciding on a four year college and seminary is only a year, but still it is quite a bit of money to spend on a school you never saw.
I know a principal who makes it her business to travel to Israel and visit the seminaries before she suggests them to her students.