Pepperdine purchased a huge castle in Switzerland for their overseas program, as well as started building a new addition on campus that will cost $150,000,000. My understanding is at least partly because of these two expenses, they are hurting financially. This is seen in the current cost. Regent scholarship was dropped by 10k (20k from 30k) and tuition/room and board went up 10k!! Tuition had been going up 5k a year, which is a lot compared to other schools. 10k is crazy! It’s basically 93k a year now with no scholarships. At the current pace, the incoming freshman will easily average 100k a year to go there for 4 years. So even with the best scholarship of 20k a year, you are looking at 80k a year for the regent scholars. and nearly 100k a year for most everyone else.
Obviously they are going to lose all students except the wealthiest of the wealthy. My wife and I make very good money, however, 400k for a college education from a school that isn’t even top 50 anymore is just ridiculous in my opinion.
And one last negative for this freshman class is they will be building this huge new addition the whole time they will be on campus. Best case scenario it will be done their senior year, but I doubt that happens. So the whole time they are on the beautiful Malibu campus, they are going to see cranes, scaffolding, huge trucks etc… Just an overall bummer for this freshman class.
Thank you for that information. Very discouraging. She was so excited after all of the UC waitlists and rejections this year. I am heartbroken. I thought it was meant to be.
And, like you, we are fortunate to have a good chunk saved for college but this is crazy.
Congrats! I am glad to hear they are getting back to smaller class sizes. Sounds like perhaps they chose that over maintaining usual scholarship amounts. Tough choice during a time of transition, I’m sure, but in a couple of years they will be all the stronger for it, I’m sure, and things will rebalance.
Yes same here, $5k! It’s so expensive and hard to justify when other CA schools are so much less. Beautiful school but seems to be pricing itself out of the market for most students.
We have not heard about any fin aid offers yet, but already decided not to go. I would possibly consider paying this much if the school was ranked in top 10 nationally, and especially for his major, but it’s very very far from it.
You stated your daughter received the Regent’s Scholarship (huge congrats) - is that the only funding they gave or just a portion of it? I am trying to gauge if there are other grants, etc that are available. Like I stated previously my daughter was only given $4000. She has received scholarships at other private schools for 5x’s this amount. Everything I have read states that most Pepp families net price is much lower. What am I missing? Are people legit paying full price? I am trying to process and understand the big picture. Thank you!!!
My oldest daughter is a sophomore at Pepperdine and she got 30k a year (120k total) from the regent scholarship . when she started the cost was around 75k, so about 45k a year after her scholarship. Since then it has gone up to nearly 95k a year and they cut the regent scholarship to only 20k. My youngest daughter with similar stats as my oldest only got 5k a year as well, so it appears they are cutting scholarships all over the board. Besides financial aid from students in need, and random scholarships you may find, I don’t know of any other scholarships you will get from Pepperdine.
My oldest heard acceptance rate is now nearly at 60% for Pepperdine because so many people are saying no to the ridiculous cost. Three years ago it was one of the top 10 most expensive schools and that was before these ridiculous raises they r doing every year to pay off these massive additions in Malibu and Switzerland. It’s just absurd what they are doing with the cost now. It’s gone up like 20k in three years.
There ranking has already been dropping. I’m sure it will continue to as top students just won’t find the value in a 100k a year education from a lower ranked school. Kind of a bummer what they are doing. Luckily my youngest daughter wanted a bigger school anyways, so she’s fine not going.
Yes only the George Pepperdine for $5000. Made the COA almost $90k a year. My child wanted a larger school as well and decided on another CA school for less than half the cost. If Pepperdine keeps raising costs at the rate it is going it could be $120k a year in 4 years. Crazy to think about.
Thank you for the explanation. I’m curious what that transfer out rate is? They can’t be retaining students with these ridiculous increases. I wonder how difficult it is to transfer from P to a UC after a couple years? I’m sure the religion classes wouldn’t transfer.
Congrats to your younger daughter on her bigger school. According to Common Data Set getting off waitlist at most CA schools is slim to none.
If the 895 spots is accurate that would be a return to smaller class sizes. Over the last couple of years, they enrolled hundreds of extra students. But is 895 the target number for RD applicants or total class size? Idk.
Somewhere around 800 I believe is there target number. However they can reach that number without raising costs. Many top ranked schools have small class sizes like Pepperdine, but they don’t just keep raising prices to reach those numbers. You just accept less people.
We’d much rather pay less as well. It does seem terribly high for uni. Speaking to a couple of points above however… I don’t believe Pepperdine will get less top applicants. There are plenty of active, talented, and high-gpa students at the school. The Regents scholars are just a portion of those students. As for rankings, they haven’t moved much. I will be very glad if they enroll less students again but otherwise the quality of academics is still just as high and challenging, in my opinion.
We also can’t say (entirely) where funds are being allocated. Yes, some very expensive projects are happening in service to university progress. And, anything that involves building in 2023 is going to be extra costly (in LA County, no less). Also, current and/or proposed tax changes may be affecting the way endowments are received and therefore, disbursed.
Hopefully those who truly need fin aid are receiving it. I don’t have any information on that.
But I hear you all… As if the price of college was not high enough…
I’m sure they will get less qualified students. It’s pretty simple math I’d think. The high price is guaranteed to turn away many of the high qualified people (I.e. my youngest daughter 4.0, 34 ACT score). They are only going to get kids who can afford 100k a year. And not just those who can afford that, but those who thinks it’s worth paying that amount. Sure there are some qualified kids who can afford that. But they are going to lose many who can’t afford it. And then families like ours who could afford it, but just can’t possibly rationalize that cost for the 55th ranked school.
As far as ranking they were 49 and now 55. And as stated above, it seems simple math that they will most definitely get less qualified people. There is guaranteed to be more highly qualified people that will say no because of the insane price. Which I’d have to imagine will drop ranking even more.
My daughter who currently attends Pepperdine said their acceptance rate is now nearly 53% because so many kids now say no. It used to be 30%. Again, with that higher number, guaranteed less qualified kids are going to get in.
My daughter also knows people in admissions and they stated the enormous cost of the Switzerland castle and huge addition on campus is a massive reason for not only the crazy increase in tuition, but also the huge drop in scholarship amount.
We’ve loved Pepperdine and my oldest daughter is very happy with the school. Just frustrated with the direction they are heading and the natural drop in qualified students because of the ridiculous cost. Driving away many great kids. What was already a “rich kid school” is now even way more so.
I’m sure there is some truth in all of your concerns raised. However, it is also a lot of hearsay and speculation and may not consider the full scope of this transitional period and to whom/what funds are being allocated. Also, rankings involve many factors, some of which may readjust soon, like a return to smaller classes. Remains to be seen. Rankings are not as heavily weighed by all, though it can be a concern for certain endeavors closer to & after graduation. Top 55 is not a bad position to be in however, if rankings are a big concern.
It’s not hearsay when it comes from an employee of the school in the admissions office. However, if you choose to believe something else, can’t fathom you or anyone else believes a raise of 20k per year over 3 years is a reasonable raise of cost in tuition. That’s ridiculous. It’s also not debatable that you are driving way all but those who believe 100k a year for a college tuition is justified. Also, you keep mentioning class size. My daughter was apart of the largest class I believe ever admitted. Her individual class sizes aren’t larger. There rooms only hold so many students. You can’t just add more kids to a class. They just added more classes. Kids were taking classes at night time.
