<p>How much can you afford? American universities are vastly more expensive than their European counterparts. </p>
<p>Also, no college in LA is particularly old. One of the oldest is UCLA, which fits all of your criteria but is both difficult to get into and extremely expensive for non Californians.</p>
<p>Given that Harvard rejects 94% of applicants, most of whom are extremely qualified, I wouldn’t reject any school on the basis that it’s where Harvard rejects go.</p>