Pittsburgh may not be quite on par with NYC, Boston, and the like, but it does have a lot of large hospitals that you would have access to. I suggest looking at Duquesne, if you don’t mind a Catholic LAC. It’s right in the city, a short bus ride to all the major attractions, and to all the large hospitals in the area.
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It’s not a LAC and not in the Northeast, but Rice ticks many of your boxes and is located across the street from Houston’s medical center, which is one of the largest in the world. Rice is located in the center of the museum district in Houston, the nicest part of the city. Rice undergrad has about 4000 students so it has the feel of a LAC with the addition of being a research university. The Psych department is very strong. Student support is robust. Rice is very LGBTQ friendly and has a great debate team. No snow in Houston however.
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Colleges want to know you love them, not their location. Telling them how much you love the City doesn’t show how you’re a fit for Barnard. If you apply to other schools you need to use your applications and interviews to show how you’re a fit for that particular college.
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Would Rice not be quite a reach for an ACT superscore of 32, or is it going test blind this year?
I think this is a very valid point. When we were doing college tours, what we got told in both New York and DC by the colleges there was “tell us why you love the college, not just the city it’s in”. Obviously the city will have an attraction, but the college wants to know it has more than just a convenient location.
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This advice holds for every single college. Middlebury doesn’t want to hear that you love to ski, BU already knows that it’s smack dab in the middle of Boston, Stanford knows that the weather in Palo Alto is much better than the weather in Cambridge MA or New Haven, CT.
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I think I misunderstood the question. The focus of my “why Barnard” essay was not on NYC itself, it was about Barnard. The classes that I would take, the activities that I would participate in, the opportunities I would take advantage of. I read your question as though you were asking me if Barnard thought I didn’t like NYC. Barnard is my dream school for a whole host of reasons, and that is what I focused on. NYC is an added bonus.
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Rice is test optional this year so it’s a good time to apply. https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2020/06/rice-suspends-standardized-testing-requirements-for-class-of-2025
Tufts is a good suggestion - it’s a small university with an LAC feel, its Medford/Somerville neighborhood is definitely urban, and getting into downtown Boston is easy on public transit. It has both a competitive ski team and a recreational ski club, as well as an active Mountain Club with its own lodge (called The Loj) that organizes backcountry, telemark, and x-country ski trips as well as downhill. They have a club equestrian team as well. Excellent medical care in Boston, obviously. Solid student services - admin has its act together; they’ve mounted one of the most proactive and successful pandemic plans of any urban school. They have both a traditional psychology department, and an engineering psychology major that focuses on human factors in tech. Study Abroad is huge, and they have also sent ASL students on exchange to Gallaudet University in DC. Tufts has ED2 which would improve your odds of acceptance.
Boston College deserves a look too. BU has the kind of setting you want, and a great psych department - just not so much the intimate LAC experience… but if you apply to the Kilachand Honors College, that might strike the right “best of both worlds” balance.
Have you considered Clark as a safety? Psychology is the major they’re most known for - it’s the only US university where Freud lectured - their Freud statue is a landmark. 2300 undergrads on an urban campus in Worcester, MA (home of UMass Medical Center), and it’s an easy 45 minute commuter rail ride into Boston. It has an equestrian club team, and an Outing Club which has merged with the Ski/Snowboard club, and sponsors many ski outings. It has an active Prism group and a student-run EMS program. Also a robust study abroad program. Holy Cross, also in Worcester, is worth a look as well - internships with fieldwork are a strong component of their psych program. Campus is a little more removed from urban Worcester than Clark’s but still in the city. There’s cross-registration between the two, as well as WPI and others.
Emory is another small LAC-like university in a major city, that has EDII. Ski trips are only a thing on breaks, as you’d imagine, but they have a top-notch equestrian program. They offer both a BA and a BS in psychology. The University Hospital is top-tier. Atlanta is an amazing city with an active LBGT community, and the university itself has strong LGBT activism as well. Excellent speech & debate too.
As others have said, Fordham might be a good fit as well, if New York is your favorite city. There’s also Eugene Lang College of The New School, which has a dual BA/MA program.
As a Scripps parent, I agree that Claremont probably isn’t what you’re looking for, setting-wise, although it would be great academically.
Good luck, and sorry for the disappointment with Barnard. This is a tough year to be applying - so many factors are making results even more unpredictable than usual.
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Wow! Thank you so much for all of this information, it is very helpful. I really appreciate you going so in depth. A few of these colleges hadn’t popped up on my radar, so I will be sure to check them out. Thank you again! And Happy Holidays 
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Did you visit Reed? We did, and it has the same location vibe as Bryn Mawr or Wellesley - rich suburbs with manicured lawns.
I’m wondering why people are suggesting schools that are much harder to get into than Barnard. The OP was rejected, not deferred so needs schools that are realistic for admissions.
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Within its own category, however, U.S. News assigns a selectivity rank of 8 to Barnard, so few National Liberal Arts Colleges, at least, can be said to be more selective. Note as well that the OP has recorded additional achievements since her Barnard denial.
Not sure about Barnard, but there are colleges that do allow an appeal process. While a rejection is hard, hopefully something will stand out in your application and you will find the place you’re meant to be, if not Barnard. It may not seem like it now, but there are thousands of colleges out there and there is a great one waiting for you. If you end up somewher else and truly feel Barnard is for you, then you can always try again at a later date to transfer, but don’t close the door on other schools. Things usually do work out for the best.
We never made it out to the West Coast. My D didn’t want to go to school across the country, but I liked everything I read and heard. Bryn Mawr and Wellesley are two of the most beautiful campuses I’ve seen.
We loved these two as well. But the point was urban vs. suburban