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.
Thanks for sharing. My daughter will be in SoCal this week so hoping to get a better grasp on Pepperdine. Can you clarify your merit statement - I think you left out a word 
indicating whether merit was better at SCU or Pepperdine.
I do agree - views at Pepperdine were amazing but the USD campus itself would be hard to beat. My daughter loved it and San Diego - just waiting on acceptance and the numbers.
Have you been to SCU yet? How would you compare?
My impression (from the other coast) is that the academic reputation of SCU is stronger than the other two. I’ve struggled measuring the reputation of USD because we are far away with no knowledgeable contacts in CA and people confuse it with UCSD. Reputation does matter if you’re trying to come back to the east coast to start a career after graduating.
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I’m a So Cal native and have lived on the East coat for nearly two decades. I think between SCU, USD, and Pepperdine, SCU seems to be the most up and coming. Those campuses are all gorgeous, but it’s a good idea to think beyond that.
I am wondering why the Claremont Consortium. It’s not particularly religious and is overall petty liberal.Has she considered other Jesuit schools where she would get good merit? What about Gonzaga? That’s a gorgeous campus with a ton of school spirit, lovely campus, and fairly balanced ratio of men to women.
Understand that your daughter may not come back to the East Coast after college. All of her choices are reputable.
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Pepperdine merit award was significantly higher than SCU.
Academically Pepperdine and SCU both rank in top 50 nationally. Pepperdine I think was 1 or 2 spots above SCU. USD still ranks well enough and it depends on course of study your student is after. Campus at Santa Clara is really nice. It is comparable to the other two. Pepperdine is very steep and not as much of a big academic quad. That steepness seems to give a panoramic view of the Pacific from pretty much everywhere on campus. USD and SCU both more of a centralized quad of campus. My son’s only knock on SCU is 40-50 min. from the beach while USD is 5-10 min and Pepperdine is across the street.
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Can you explain more?
Did the changes in general Ed requirements happen? My daughter is interested in Pepperdine, but hoping the 3 classes of religion changes or opens up with sone alternative choices of classes.
Unfortunately a formal announcement on the implementation date of the GE strategic plan has not been made. The General Education Review Committee did propose a 2023 date, but unfortunately I do not know where they currently stand. I do know they have been working on it.
Currently, the only way to my knowledge to opt out of one of the required three, is to take part in either of the colloquia - Great Books or Social Action and Justice. (Credits for other GEs also apply).
I wish her the best in this important decision.