Which one to choose? Barnard, Wesleyan or Tufts??

[warblersrule]

<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.

It should be added that all three were single-sex at the time, with Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyan going co-ed in 1975, 1970, and 1970, respectively. </p>

<p>Barnard is a member of the female equivalent, the Seven Sisters. That group also included Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Vassar (co-ed in 1969), and Radcliffe (effectively merged with Harvard in the 70s and definitively in 1999).</p>

<p>Unless I’m mistaken, Tufts doesn’t have a similar grouping, possibly because it has been co-ed since 1892. That says nothing about its quality, of course.</p>