<p>^^Here’s the deal: if you are looking for a safe, supportive, redoubt from which to explore and experience New York City, there are few better places than Barnard, Columbia, and NYU. There are a few other places in and around the city, including Wagner College, St. John’s University, and Fordham that offer residential accomodations to out-of-state students, but, I wouldn’t put them in the same category as those three. </p>
<p>I can’t think of any LACs located outside of New York that can replicate the experience of living in a big city. Vassar, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and Haverford are all located near commuter rails that will get you into a city for a visit, but, none would call itself an urban campus by ay means.</p>
<p>Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst were all, in a sense, founded by sponsors anxious to get away from the influences of the big city; they were men’s colleges built in an era when the main function of higher education in America was to supply the country with an educated learned class whose members included all the mainline Protestant ministries.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t place any special significance in the term Little Three; it is mainly a testament to the length of time each has been competing with the other on the athletic field. As the country became less secular – beginning around the late 1800s – and certain big-city influences began to be felt even in faraway Middletown, Connecticut – Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan all began to make accomodations to what one historian refers to as the increasingly “metropolitan” <em>zeitgeist</em> of the times. The establishment of inter-collegiate athletic competition was one result and, because they were among the first small colleges to do so, they became known as the Little Three.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean, however, that they opted to become big universities (despite Wesleyan’s name) or to duplicate all the resources of a big city. Williams shares locations with the Clark Museum, internationally known for its Renoir collection and is near MassMoca in North Adams, Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Amherst is located in one of the country’s most densely populated college towns, host to no less than five nationally known colleges, including the state’s flagship university of close to 30,000 students. It shares locations with the Emily Dickinson Museum.</p>
<p>Wesleyan holds the dubious distinction of being the main cultural stay of an area of New England that is poorly served by its neighbors to the south (New York) and north (Western Massachusetts.) to compensate for its relative isolation, it has made itself over (some say, by default) into a mecca for future performing artists as well as doctors, lawyers, scientists – and, ministers. Over the space of the last thirty years, there has seldom been a year when a Wesleyan alumnus hasn’t been in competition for an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy or a Tony – and, sometimes all four. And, thanks to its Cinema Archives (a kind of museum, if you will) you can occasionally spot the likes of Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, Isabella Rossellini, John Waters, and Joss Whedon eating lunch at the local hash house downtown.</p>
<p>But, those are mainly historical narratives and lifestyle issues. Academically, as others have posted, you will find strengths at all three schools mentioned in your OP. Anthropology (or, a subset of cultural anthropology) happens to be one of Wesleyan’s. It’s hard to believe that a student at Barnard would be at a disadvantage in that regard. Or, Tufts for that matter.</p>