My son has his top 3 as Pepperdine, SCU and University of San Diego. We visited all 3 last summer. Pepperdine had Freshman orientation going on at the time. They almost didn’t let us on campus since at the time he was not even applied and we didn’t have appointment to tour. Luckily I have a Fraternity contact who works there. We got access and my son loved the vibe. He is not a member of CofC. We liked all 3 schools. All stunning. Personally I thought USD was even ore beautiful campus. That is splitting hairs. Merit at Pepperdine was than SCU. USD doesn’t release admissions until March 1 and Fin. Awards soon after that.