CWRU has about 5000 undergraduates, and Pepperdine has about 3500.
How do you feel about cold weather?
Consider the following:
Net Cost
Number of Undergraduates
Faculty Student Ratio
%of students that live on campus
% of international students
Support for international students
How big is the department for your major? If you are majoring in something that only has a couple of professors, that does not bode well.
Pepperdine has 7 professors for Poli Sci: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/socialscience/undergraduate/political-science/faculty.htm
CWRU has 15 http://politicalscience.case.edu/about-the-department/people/
Housing- do they offer all 4 years? freshman only?
Urban/rural/suburban
Is this a commuter school? (do students go home on weekends)
Surrounding area - what is the nearby town/amenities like?
Transportation - how would you get home
AP Credits - can you get credit for AP tests you have taken
Male/Female ratio
Greek life - what % of students are in greek life
Parking
Diversity
Safety
Sports
Jobs - what happens to seniors after they graduate
Internships - depending on your major, is it easy to get internships?
…and whatever makes sense for you
You might not care about, say, greek life. but if 50% of the kids are in greek life and you don’t want to be, that is something to know. Or you may want a big time sports scene or you might not want one. Grade them from 1-5 as they make sense to you.
Then look at each of them and see which makes sense for you
A tool to help is https://colleges.niche.com/compare/default.aspx?&tab=tab-rankings