Schools Occidental College for Undergraduate Physics?

[D4V1D]

I'm currently set to attend a community college (basically due to cost and convenience), but I found Occidental College, and I wanted to look into possibly transferring after a year.
I would've applied to this school right away, but I didn't find out about it until roughly January of my senior year, after the application deadline.
I wanted to ask if anyone knew anything about their physics program?
Is it solid? Would I have research opportunities at all? Would it prepare me for graduate school?
It seems that they have a partnership with a couple of great schools, including Caltech, in that they have a 3/2 Physics/Engineering program with them.
I also was curious if this means that a physics degree from Occidental may look good in applying for graduate school at Caltech, or any other Ivy (my other top choice would be University of Chicago, seeing as though I kinda' do miss my hometown)?
I hear that though they're relatively unheard of to the public, Occidental has a very good reputation among educational circles.
Also, I've been really wanting to go to L.A. for a good while.
Basically, this school sounds like a dream to me so far, but academics are the most important aspect, so I really want to know more.

NOTE: I'm re-posting this here, because I accidentally posted it in Career Guidance, when I meant to click Academic Guidance (oops! sorry!). Sorry about that. x___x

 

[Geezer]

I'm currently set to attend a community college (basically due to cost and convenience), but I found Occidental College, and I wanted to look into possibly transferring after a year.
I would've applied to this school right away, but I didn't find out about it until roughly January of my senior year, after the application deadline.
I wanted to ask if anyone knew anything about their physics program?
Is it solid? Would I have research opportunities at all? Would it prepare me for graduate school?
It seems that they have a partnership with a couple of great schools, including Caltech, in that they have a 3/2 Physics/Engineering program with them.
I also was curious if this means that a physics degree from Occidental may look good in applying for graduate school at Caltech, or any other Ivy (my other top choice would be University of Chicago, seeing as though I kinda' do miss my hometown)?
I hear that though they're relatively unheard of to the public, Occidental has a very good reputation among educational circles.
Also, I've been really wanting to go to L.A. for a good while.
Basically, this school sounds like a dream to me so far, but academics are the most important aspect, so I really want to know more.

NOTE: I'm re-posting this here, because I accidentally posted it in Career Guidance, when I meant to click Academic Guidance (oops! sorry!). Sorry about that. x___x

You know, there are other good schools in Los Angles, like UCLA, that have strong undergrad programs and international reputations...

 

[Bipolarity]

Occidental is well known for being President Obama's undergraduate alma mater. He did not complete his degree there however, as he transferred to Columbia after spending a year there.

BiP