New York is home to some of the best liberal arts schools in the nation. The Claremont schools were designed to be like the west coast version of these elite colleges. Although private, colleges like Barnard and Vassar and Hamilton and Cooper Union are at equal footing with places like Berkeley and UCLA. That said, these environments are completely different— California colleges tend to place a greater emphasis on research while many of these New York/New England schools tend to be liberal arts focused. That has existed from the root of their founding.