"Essentially, I’m looking for a school with similar academic flexibility and opportunity to Rochester, but ideally situated somewhere warmer or more lively. Any suggestions would be appreciated; I honestly don’t even fully know where or how to start looking. "
Then you need to check out University of Southern California.
It has all that you need and want- the flexibility to double major in 2 totally diverse areas, a great music school- [Thorton ], a great CS program in the Engineering Program[ Vertibi] , sunny warm weather, happy students , lots of openings for transfer students, FA for transfer students, and the advantage of being at a U that has the top Cinematic Arts program in the country.
I really can’t believe that no one had suggested USC. 