The daughter of friends is going off to college, and my wife has decided the best gift for her would be a good multi-tool, i.e. Leatherman and the like.
Blade must be <3 inches though.
Recommendations?

The leatherman wave is my standard answer and it works here too. The blade is 2.9 inches.

Add the bit kit and extender and she will have pretty much every tool she should need at college except for maybe a hammer.

I have several waves, but take a hard look at the Victorinox spirit X multi tool. It’s the smaller of the two multi tools that Victorinox makes and is of extremely high-quality.

SOG makes excellent multi tools also.

I have gifted the Leatherman Micra quite a few times to both ladies and gentlemen. It is universally appreciated and IMHO is the single most useful small tool ever. I find that most people, especially ladies need scissors more often than pliers and the small size of the Micra makes it easy to stick on the keychain and always have with you.

The leathermen Wave is a great tool but is larger than most people will consistantly carry. A purse is a perfect place to always carry a multitool but most ladies I've known don't seem to glom onto that idea! :-D

I have a Leatherman Style PS on my keychain, and it's quite handy. It's got a set of small pliers, scissors, nail file, tweezer, bottle opener, and a small screwdriver.

We got her a Wave + with leather holster and she was delighted; her dad envious. Perfect.
For myself, I do prefer the Victorinox Spirit, given me by my son.