<p>Anyone going?</p>
<p>My daughter and I will be flying in from Ohio on Friday evening for the Saturday afternoon reception. We are looking forward to checking out this school and its famous location!</p>
<p>Awesome! Anyone else?</p>
<p>I'll be there as well, from STL!</p>
<p>I won't be going. I've visited the campus many times for various things, and it looks like they're doing a lot of the same stuff they did on senior preview day anyway. Plus I already went to the reception for my area last week.</p>
<p>I will be attending with my daughter. We are also from St. Louis. Fenton (Rockwood Summit) to be more exact. What part of St. Louis are you from STLRAMS? </p>
<p>We are flying in on Friday morning to spend the day in Malibu before the reception. Any recommendations for a restaurant?</p>
<p>I'm from Kirkwood, STL.</p>
<p>not that it really matters, but we don't have to wear coat and ties to this reception do we? My dad is convinced that I have to, but I didn't think so...</p>
<p>No, not at Pepperdine! It should be an informal event with all of the touring.</p>
<p>I am not going to be able to make it. Bummer... I hope everyone else has a great time!</p>
<p>wow.. it was AMAZING =O
they gave us FOOD!!</p>
<p>A bit late for your weekend, Pepperdad, but on your next visit try The Sunset restaurant, about 8 miles north of Pepperdine on Westward Beach Road. It's a nice restaurant practically on the sand at Westward Beach with not-outrageous prices (for Malibu, at least), and is frequented more by locals than tourists because it's somewhat off the beaten track. As the name implies, you can watch beautiful sunsets over Zuma Beach from their west-facing windows.</p>
<p>Closer to Pepperdine, Tra Di Noi and Nobu are regarded by some as the best restaurants in Malibu. (Bring your credit card to Nobu!)</p>
<p>The Malibu Reception thing wasn't very good. The beach and campus looked great, the weather was stunning, the people were nice, but the academic presentation of the university was complete crap. I heard about a billion times that the professors were SO nice, but thats about it. No one could tell me what percent of their students moved on to grad school, what percent of the faculty had phds, or any other important statistic that one should look into when choosing an undergraduate education. Everyone just told me to "look at the website." Well thats the only website I've been on the last few months, and even that is extremely broad! Yes, the fluff of the social life and beach scene was great, but I left the reception bad feelings about Pepperdine.</p>
<p>What academic session did you attend? In the Biology session, Dr. Vandergon answered many questions directed to him about medical school acceptance rates (about 70%), the specific schools that students have been admitted to (USC, Washington, Ohio State, etc.), but admittedly he didn't have any specific information on general university statistics.</p>
<p>Frankly, I thought all of the presentations were excellent. Did you listen to the Pepperdine graduate and Fulbright scholar Ashley Tucker speak? Do you know what the scholarship is for, and how many times Pepperdine has had a winner in this annual competition (7 out of the last 9 years)? That alone is a testament to the strength of their academic studies.</p>
<p>That said, certainly not all areas can be adequately covered in a general presentation. So the university chose to emphasize what they did, leaving specific questions to be answered in one-on-one sessions which faculty or administrators (I saw the Director of Admissions outside mingling with prospective students right up until we left around 5 pm). So if you felt shorted in the general talks, it should've been resolve to get more information directly from the source.</p>
<p>So IMHO, calling the reception "crap" is a bit reckless on your part. Belive me, I've been to "crap" presentations before, and this was nowhere near that level.</p>
<p>But we agree on the campus and weather - both were exceptional on Saturday.</p>
<p>CincinnatiDad: agreed.
I was also at the Biology session and he was quite specific in addressing most of the questions. The woman at the Natural Sciences table out in the plaza also had an exact list of this year's graduates and where they had been accepted to med school. They adequately addressed most of my concerns during the talks, and if they didn't then I asked them and got answers that way.</p>
<p>I'm sorry I was just a bit frustrated. Crap is over the top. The trip just costed us a lot of money and we did not get much out of it. My family and I split up, I went to the undeclared session and my parents went to the business session. My dad had nothing good to say about the business session, and I guess it was my fault for expecting something from the undeclared session.</p>
<p>I did speak with the director of admissions for a few minutes, and he was generally informative, but I guess I just expected more out of the entire presentation. That is probably just my fault, and I'm sure others had positive experiences.</p>
<p>I am sorry you were so disappointed STLRAMS. We acually thought the presentations and weekend were great. We went to the Social Science breakout. Rec'd a lot of very good information. We then beat feet over to talk to the Englich department. Spoke to a student working on a dual major (English and Economics), exactly what my daughter is looking into to then move onto law school. My daughter walked away completely sold on Pepperdine and we immediatly paid our $750 commitment. Pepperdine in August.</p>
<p>It made it even better when we rec'd the mail on Monday with generous scholarship and grant money.</p>
<p>My daughter is so excited. We both feel like Pepperdine is the perfect place for her. </p>
<p>Have you decided to not attend Pepperdine? </p>
<p>Did anyone go to the play (Twelfth Night)? It was quite good. You wouold have seen the set in the Smothers Theatre. We really enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Lastly, we did find lots of good food in the area. Malibu Cafe (2 pages of salads that were very good) and a Barbeque place in Agoura (forgot the name).</p>
<p>I thought I might add one additional comment STLRAMS. Another positive factor we thought we garnered from this visitation weekend was achieving a comfort factor. My dauhter is a very confident person, however she naturally had some reservations she needed to clear up. After all this is Malibu and we are from Fenton. She was not sure how she would fit in out there. Would they all be rich and rude? 2000 women looking just like "Barbie"? We walked around campus Friday going to the Library, cafe etc... She realized how much she really does fit in. That these were friendly smart people with lots of variety. People just like her.</p>
<p>Pepperdad, Pepperdine is certainly not out of the question for me, as I am sure I was of the small minority who did not feel very informed by the academic division presentations. I also felt a deep sense of comfort at Pepperdine, more than any other school I have visited, and I know for a fact from their reputation that they are a highly focused university when it comes to academics and the liberal arts education. I went to a party at night with a student from my high school, and I quickly connect to all of his friends; I know that's hard to do at most places. They all stressed the fact that Pepperdine is an extremely challenging institution, so just take my first post about not being impressed as a way of me venting my steam. The trip costed a lot of money and I felt like I left empty handed, thats all. </p>
<p>Now I have to decide between USC and Pepperdine, and as of right now I really don't have a clue!</p>
<p>Pepperdad, I saw Twelfth Night- it was great! The set, especially was gorgeous and I was laughing throughout the whole play. =)</p>
<p>Did not see Twelfth Night, but did see the fall musical Anything Goes and The Glass Menagerie. Both were excellent. My daughter's area of interest is the arts and we have been impressed with their programs, even though small. Still hopeful from the waitlist!</p>