Financial safety is definitely something to consider, I will for sure look into more financial aid-type stuff. Thank you for the advice!
As for religious preference, Pepperdine is honestly not my top choice at all (not even sure if I want to apply there to begin with because of the religious aspect, I just know that it’s a for certain “admissions safety”).
I was wondering, since you’re obviously familiar with this year’s admissions process, because so many students took gaps years during the 2019-2020 admissions cycle because of COVID, did that have any impact on the admission rates for the highly competitive schools (ie. UCB, UCLA, Ivys, etc.)? Thanks!