Imagine you were interviewing candidates for a job as a programmer at Google and you asked each one why they wanted to work at Google (which is a standard question in a job interview). Would you hire the applicant who gave you this answer?
“Well, it’s Google. It’s a great company. I really want to do computer programming, which you do here, and Google would really look good on my resume. Plus, I love how you have so many perks here, like free lunches, a gym, and dry cleaning right here at work. And your complex is really pretty. I really like the buildings and the way it’s all laid out. It’s just gorgeous. That's why I've wanted to work here for a long time and why Google is my first choice of companies to work for."
There’s nothing wrong with that answer. But all this applicant did was tell you things about Google that you (and pretty much everybody else) already know. You didn’t learn anything about the candidate. He could have given the exact same answer to any number of other companies. Sure, there’s only one Google, but lots of companies have perks and pretty buildings. You’d probably start to wonder if this person had bothered to really think about what kind of work environment he wanted to be in and if he really knew whether Google was a good fit for him.
That’s why telling a college you want to go there because they have, “…a great reputation, a strong (insert major here) program, and a beautiful campus is an ineffective answer, too.