Hey RookieDad,
That’s a really far trip for a campus tour, I imagine your daughter must be very interested in going to California to study.
This post is a bit more related to lifestyle than study, but I think it overlaps. For me, I grew up in the Northeast, but moved to California right after high school for a gap year and personally that was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. I drove out there, alone and no plan. In a matter of a week or so, I was surrounded by friends that helped me get situated and showed me around such a cool and beautiful part of our country. Best part was that it was so easy to find friends who were into healthy and sober activities outdoors - no drinking, smoking, gossip, etc., just rock climbing, hiking, camping in deserts under the stars, surfing and swimming in the ocean - I had a complete blast.
I think being so far away from home (parents/friends) and the general culture of the east coast really forced me to grow up as a young adult and find myself. For example, I always thought about traveling the world but was afraid of living out such a wild dream fresh out of high school and I think California was a good starting point for me to learn the basics of traveling while being around people I could relate to. After about a year, I had gained so much confidence that I decided to travel across the world to backpack Australia, where I eventually started a failing company and went to college, before enrolling into one of the top universities in Asia.
Since you’re daughter will be in college for 4 years, 3,000 miles away isn’t sounding so scary compared to some of the other alternatives that are 10,000 miles away : ) Plus Claremont is a pretty fine place to study and has a pretty fine reputation. No matter where your daughter ends up, I hope she has an awesome experience and gets the best out of her college years, and, of course, education.