Make sure you point out not only the out-of-pocket (which is what it sounds like the 9K/year is) but also the amount of debt that’s included in the financial aid package. And be sure you run the calculators for each school individually, not just a general EFC calculation (i.e. from the FAFSA).
Caltech doesn’t sound appropriate for you. The Claremonts could be a great fit though. This, for example, for Bio+Business: Science Management - Claremont McKenna College - Acalog ACMS™
Well, start with a ranking-the-local-schools strategy, and then look at the non-local ones and see whether there might be a few you could “sell” as worth adding. (Stanford could be a test case, since it’s still in California and highly-desirable. Although it’s ridiculously competitive to actually get a match offer there.) But even just ranking those four (the ones you said, minus Caltech) would be better than nothing. (There will be a bigger difference between regular financial aid and QB-Match aid at Scripps or USC than at Pomona or Stanford. And UC costs - particularly if you don’t commute to Riverside - will be a different beast altogether, so compare that too.