Have you scheduled tours at the different campuses already? That might limit how much you can do in one day. Does LMU offer a morning tour and USC afternoon tours? I believe both LMU and USC offer both general campus tours as well as dorm tours. You might not be able to do them all.
@ACollegeFan if you are planning to rent a car right away, I’d scrap the Embassy Suites LAX and try to find a deal on a Marina/Venice/SM hotel that first night. That way, you can drive through LMU as someone suggested, on your way to the hotel. Get a feel for the campus/area. Marina Del Rey is 5 - 10 mins. Venice 10-15. Santa Monica 15-20 (roughly) and can all be done on surface streets (tho freeway will be faster to SM beach hotels sometimes.)
My 2 cents.
Not sure when “later this month” is, but if it includes Jan. 21, you might want to check out the March on Washington thread and notice how many people are going to the LA march. That will cause traffic issues.
Near USD, I recommend the Hilton San Diego Resort on E. Mission Bay Dr (there are multiple Hiltons with similar names, so be careful to check the address). This is very close to USD, has a great pool, and is right on Mission Bay. Catamaran, Paradise Point, etc., also are nice bayfront locations a bit further from USD, but certainly not far away at all. Also very close to USD is the Best Western Hacienda in Old Town, which is a fun location, if you don’t mind touristy (very…). If you are looking for the best price on a hotel, I would look at the hotels on Hotel Circle just below USD in Mission Valley, but that is all just soulless convenience. If your D is a more urban kind of person, you could stay in a hotel downtown. That will only be 15 minutes from USD and 10 minutes from the airport.
The Doubletree in Claremont is nice, and it is not a problem to drive to the village area - there is plenty of parking. If anything opens up at Casa 425, I have heard that’s quite nice, and they do have bikes they lend out so you can ride around the area (which is all flat).
Personally, unless you are really wanting to hang out around Chapman, I would not stay in Orange County overnight. I would drive down to San Diego. However, the traffic going south on the 5 gets bad by 4pm in San Diego County. So, one possibility if this is your D’s thing is to go to Downtown Disney after Chapman, or even splurge for Disneyland tickets even though you wouldn’t get to use them for the whole day. Or just deal with the traffic. That way, you would only have to stay in 3 different hotels instead of 4.
@elsacc My D’s interview with Chapman is at 1:00 pm and our tour is at 2:00 pm. I thought the drive to San Diego on a Friday afternoon from Chapman might be too hard. That’s why I thought we should spend the night. I could switch to the morning tour at Chapman, but would have to get there from Claremont by 10:00 am. No good solution with the traffic! But I like your idea of fewer hotels.
@lkg4answers I did schedule the morning tour of LMU and the afternoon tour of USC. I think your are right and we may not be able to do it all. USC will probably be the one we skip out on, unless she just loves it.
@ACollegeFan Yes, the drive from Chapman to San Diego on a Friday afternoon/evening will be bad. But you could have an early dinner in OC - around Chapman, at Downtown Disney, or South Coast Plaza Mall area, for example - and then drive to SD after dinner. The drive should be fine by 7pm. Then you will have more time in SD, which would be good since you want to relocate there. And fewer hotels. The general area within a 5 mile radius of USD is much less suburban than OC. IMHO there is a lot more to do/see there than around Chapman, with the exception of Disneyland.
Personally, I try to arrive the night before to avoid any unexpected delays and potential missed tours.
If you can change her interview to the morning, I would heed @elsacc advice.
Day 1 - arrive
Night 1 - close to LMU
Day 2 - tour LMU and USC
Night 2 - Claremont
Day 3 - tour Claremont schools
Night 3 - OC near Chapman
Day 4 - morning interview at Chapman. Get on the road before 2 pm to avoid traffic going to SD. It starts around 3 pm and doesn’t lighten up until after 8 pm.
Night 4 - SD
Day 5 - USD, fly home
That said, how would your daughter rank the schools? You might want to spend more time exploring the community around the schools that are at the top of her list and less time at the schools she doesn’t care about as much.
Casa 425 looks nice, but certainly makes doubletree look like a bargain (at least based on their website prices!).
I think spending some time at downtown Disney or even at Disneyland would be a nice break from the college touring. Maybe only one night in Claremont, drive to OC, early time at Chapman, Disney and stay again in OC then drive to SD on Saturday morning.
Good luck with the trip.
If she comes to So Cal for college, plenty of time for sightseeing then. I’d focus more on the area around the colleges. The Claremont village is pretty charming. I’d live there if my kid wouldn’t kill me. 
OP, we stayed at the Embassy Suites at 9801 Airport Blvd over Thanksgiving this weekend. I thought it was really nice for an airport hotel. Neighborhood is nothing fancy, but the hotel inside is nice.
Yes, traffic on Saturday into San Diego isn’t pretty, but if you go early you should be fine. I used to live right there in San Clemente at the ‘S’ curve of the I-5, and it does back up.
LOL! I’ve “threatened” to move there many times! But at least I live close enough to visit often. (Who knows! I may even visit after my kids graduate!)
Yes it is (for us parents), but that is also why the Claremont colleges were some of those in which, ‘my kid would not get out of the car.’
The general area around USD is a mixture of industrial and residential, so you could look for hotels on I-8, in Mission Valley, 5 minutes away, or find hotels in Old Town, which is close to the airport.
There is every brand of hotel in Mission Valley, so you’ll have a choice of about 30 hotels.
BTW, the views from USD, towards the coast are beautiful. USD sits on a hill overlooking Mission Valley and San Diego’s bay area. Traffic coming south on I-5, from LA, can be brutal if you drive in at peak times. I-15 can be hard coming from the Clairemont Colleges.
Sounds like an incredible trip!! Hope you don’t mind my jumping in…I will be in LA for only a weekend on biz end of January with my daughter. We will be downtown at Staples Center. Do you think possible to do a “quick tour” of USC…Google map says “10 minutes/10 miles away”…how long/how far on LA time on a Saturday? Call me crazy…but before considering a visit…does USC give ANY merit scholarships?!
Does anyone know the Jamaica Bay Inn in Marina del Rey? I found it on the LMU website and thought it might be a fun place to stay our first one or two nights. Kind of pricey, but looks nice. Thanks.
@tpcrd66 Yes, USC is close to the Staples Center. The 110 & 10 fwy interchange can be messy so you are probably better off taking surface streets.
Be cautious wandering too far from either the Staples Center/LA Live region or the USC campus in the evening.
Waze can be a useful app for alternate traffic routes in LA.
Do you think it’s worth a trip since we are there…any other school very close that you would say"must see if you are in LA"? We are from NJ.
Have dinner at Haven in Orange after Chapman.