Howdy- besides the PM i sent you, let me throw in the following:
conference is all private schools and all pretty pricey. I do know that Clarmont McKenna and Pomona have pretty solid need based aid and will pretty well meet what FAFSA says you need. Not sure of the rest of the schools and their policies.
Academically, and no offense to anyone, I'd say that CalTech is at the top of the brainiac pile, followed by Pomona (typically ranked as the #1 Liberal Arts College west of the eastern seaboard and usually in the top 5 nationally), Claremont Mckeena/Harvey Mudd very close behind and then Occidental usually ranked academically just a tad below but still very highly regarded.
Take a bit of step down to Pitzer and then another step and you have Redlands, LaVerne, Cal Lutheran and Whittier (and while not viewed as academic powerhouses, all are fine schools in their own right).
As far as baseball, all have pretty decent facilities (regardless of division) except Cal Tech. Cal Lu has a new sports complex, Pomona/Pitzer and Claremont/Mudd both have first rate facilities that are fairly new. Oxy, Redlands and Laverne are quite nice, don't recall Whittier's set up.
CalLu and Laverne have probably had the most success in baseball in recent times, with Redlands close behind, although Pomona and Claremont have had some very successful seasons. Oxy is back on the upswing after the program fell apart a little bit back around 2002 or so, but a coaching change seems to have cured that. Whittier has a solid program. Cal tech is the annual "also ran" and from year to year seem to drop in and out of the conference.
Very good baseball is played. Not too much travel so not too much school gets missed. They all (except Cal Tech) play a full 40 game schedule as allowed by NCAA. Several of the schools play a D-1 or D-2 now and then. Scouts are very often at the games and many kids get drafted out of this conference. Most of the schools also play very solid non-conference schedule, many east coast teams travel out to SoCal for spring tournaments.
If you're looking for an excellent smaller school in the Southern California area, can't beat the schools in this conference.
