Lehigh or Pepperdine for IB? Tips for a freshman?

Hey guys, I am considering going into IB in the future and would like to start preparing in advance. I am currently a high school senior going to college this fall, but I am debating between two schools--Lehigh (economics) and Pepperdine University (business administration + 25k scholarship). I live only 2 hours away from Pepperdine and also offered with 25k scholarship a year, so I am a lot leaning toward Pepperdine, but I heard that it's a non-target and not really recognizable, and I heard that it's a school with mostly rich kids (not sure if that's a good thing or not). Since Pepperdine is in LA, I am most likely staying in California (nice weather!) but I would also like to explore New York (ideally and hopefully landing an IB job on wall street! ). On the other hand, Lehigh gives me a "work hard and play hard" kind of vibe, which is what I'm looking for in a school. I know Lehigh is not a target either, but I heard that it's got a good reputation in the business world. However, i think i am pretty much decided on going to Pepperdine, although I am interested in Lehigh more. Can someone convince me that Lehigh is not that good (like does it even worth the cost of 76k//year)? Any advices/tips for landing a high-paying IB job without going to Lehigh will be greatly appreciated!! (one last question, a bit off-topic, is graduating earlier gonna help with my career? maybe I can spend a year gaining work experience and doing other meaningful things, etc..)

Thank you!!