Pepperdine Reputation

College Search & Selection
21

<p>IMO Pepperdine is a pretty good school, probably the best of the evangelical Christian (not Catholic) small universities. It has a reputation for being conservative, both in its faculty and administration and in its student body; for many people that’s a positive. Gorgeous location. It does not, however, meet 100% of need, which is probably going to skew the student body towards the more affluent side.</p>

<p>FWIW, Princeton Review quotes Pepperdine students whose own assessments confirm all the stereotypes about the place:</p>

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22

<p>Pepperdine University is a very good school. I’ve done a lot of research on the university to see if it was a nice fit for me, and this is what I found:</p>

<p>Pepperdine is usually ranked as one of the top National Universities in the U.S. USNWR ranked it as a “Tier 1” university (out of 4 Tiers), and as #56 out of a few hundred. It’s not exactly up there with Harvard or MIT, but considering there is an estimated 2000-4000 colleges in the U.S, it’s decent! It usually ranks in the top 60 universities and it’s almost always in the rankings of top 100 schools. (those rankings tend to favor large, research universities with huge endowments. Pepperdine isn’t as big on research as other schools but was probably ranked because it’s hard to get into.)</p>

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/malibu-ca/pepperdine-university-1264”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/malibu-ca/pepperdine-university-1264&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>High School counselors ranked it in the top 50.</p>

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/malibu-ca/pepperdine-university-1264”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/malibu-ca/pepperdine-university-1264&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’ve also seen it on lists of the hardest universities to get into, and the lowest acceptance rates.</p>

<p>(in response to my comment about it being diverse)
“Do you read a lot of fantasy or humor magazines?” Um, no…Actually look at US News and World Report magazine or Princeton Review. Pepperdine University is on the lists for both: the “Most Economically Diverse Schools” and the “Most Ethnically Diverse”. Visit the campus and see for yourself. Southern California is a very diverse place.</p>

<p>Economic Diversity
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-economic-diversity”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-economic-diversity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Ethnic Diversity
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-campus-ethnic-diversity”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-campus-ethnic-diversity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Sure, there are some very rich students there…that’s not exactly a bad thing. I’d think those are the ones you want in your network- especially if you’re studying business and their parents own companies.</p>

<p>“UCLA is much harder to get into” -not really. I know someone that transferred into UCLA from a community college with a 2.8 GPA…also, I read somewhere that most of the students at Pepperdine were in the top 10% of there high school class. </p>

<p>Pepperdine has a really good law school, and a really good MBA program (what I’ve been researching). Both are usually ranked in the top 60. Pepperdine has a very strong alumni network for these programs. </p>

<p>MBA Rankings
<a href=“Forbes List Directory”>Forbes List Directory;
<a href=“Top 100 Global MBA 2005 | World Ranking Guide”>http://worldranking.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-100-global-mba-2005.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Forbes List Directory”>Forbes List Directory;
<a href=“http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/emba-rankings”>http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/emba-rankings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Law School rankings
<a href=“Law School Rankings”>Law School Rankings;
<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/rankings/page+3”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/rankings/page+3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Pepperdine is definitely one of the more conservative private Christian schools. Does that mean all the students are conservative?? Absolutely not. Here is an article about Pepperdine students signing a petition against Ken Starr’s view of proposition 8. </p>

<p><a href=“http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/is_pepperdine_the_next_bob_jones_university”>http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/is_pepperdine_the_next_bob_jones_university&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Sports are big at the school. Sports Illustrated ranked Pepperdine as 10th in sports.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.pepperdine.edu/pr/releases/2006/june/siranking.htm”>http://www.pepperdine.edu/pr/releases/2006/june/siranking.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Now why would some one choose Pepperdine over UC Berkley?? I personally wouldn’t have, but I can see how a small, conservative, private Christian school is a better fit for some one, than one of the largest, most liberal public schools, located in the most liberal part of the U.S. Also, Pepperdine is in a very good and safe location, has a very strong alumni network (almost like a mafia) that helps students get jobs, and gives out a lot of scholarships. To be honest, the graduates I know from Pepperdine are doing better financially than graduates I know from UCLA.</p>

<p>I’m not saying Pepperdine is for everyone. I’m just saying people should look more into it before bashing it. I ended up choosing it over a higher ranked school because I really liked the campus’ culture…Everyone is really nice there and I knew I’d be happy there…And no- it’s not a “party school.”</p>

23

<p>Pepperdine is affiliated with the Church of Christ, a conservative evangelical Church. Other schools affiliated with the COC such as Harding, Abilene Christian, and Lipscomb are extremely conservative. Pepperdine is not as conservative as those schools. One of the most laughable and silly tenets of the COC is that dancing to music is considered a sin. </p>

<p>My next door neighbor goes to Pepperdine. Apparently, if you are part of the COC, you can receive heavily reduced tuition. That worked for him.</p>

24

<p>"Pepperdine is usually ranked as one of the top National Universities in the U.S. USNWR ranked it as a “Tier 1” university (out of 4 Tiers), and as #56 out of a few hundred. It’s not exactly up there with Harvard or MIT, but considering there is an estimated 2000-4000 colleges in the U.S, it’s decent! "</p>

<p>LMAO this is CC, people here only look at the top 30</p>

25

<p>University of Washington is not top 30.</p>