<i>Besides the one on/near Storrow Drive and the Charles River, there is one in downtown Boston.</i>

The Doubletree in downtown is not a suite hotel.

I'm interested in much good advice given as a fairly new resident in the area (Watertown). But unlike us oldsters coming from Missouri you are already accustomed to urban life incl. traffic. Our son prof. BU and partner with A.R.T. Harvard. We do drive but avoid doing so if we can in Boston and do rely on MBTA. Driving and certainly parking a challenge.

Thing I would note already said is how different the colleges are in many ways including access to Boston and location. For example, BC and Tufts indeed out a ways but the latter maybe more Boston-Cambridge access. BU, MIT definitely urban.
Maybe Harvard...we regularly visit Harvard Square.

I like the idea of contacting admissions offices for advice. Good luck.

Another suite hotel is the Eliot Hotel on Commonwealth Ave. and Mass. Ave. You can walk to BU from there if the weather is good and it's just a block from the Green Line and a short walk to many shops and restaurants. A better location than the downtown Doubletree which does have some two-room suites, though it isn't a suite hotel.

I think all the schools have good access to downtown but I think undergraduate student life is primarily campus based. It's not as though the students are leaving their area to go into Boston every day.