<p>Pomona, Claremont Mckenna, HMC, Stanford, and USC are the best privates. Since you’re looking for great financial aid and 15 to 35 percent acceptance rate, I would cross out all the Claremonts and Stanford. However, with that being said, I think you have to consider making your application stronger and to apply to at least Pomona and Stanford, since they both offer some of the best financial aid offers around. They will be reaches (for anyone really), but you should try out your luck. Pomona’s enrollment may be only 1600, but the whole consortium has 7000+ students.
As for the publics, UCLA, UCSD and UCB are great options, but their financial aid is very tricky (as the posters said above).
Bottom line, if you want to get great financial aid and academics, you should strengthen your app and apply to Pomona, Stanford, and USC (with USC being the most realistic option out of the three). </p>