<p>I was browsing college board a while back and I noticed that Pepperdine's acceptance rate is very very low (28%), I was under the impression it wasn't very selective. When my dad was applying to grad schools Pepperdine was his saftety.</p>
<p>There are a lot of students applying there just because it's in Malibu, so that's why the acceptance rate is low.</p>
<p>lots of underqualified applicants.... the pool of applicants applying to pepperdine is not particularly impressive. Lots of financially well off, under achieving students, many of which parents attended pepperdine. This is my personal experience with pepperdine applicants. I also know lots of good students however who applied to pepperdine as a backup school.</p>
<p>How do you have personal experience with Pepperdine applicants? Are you an adcom? </p>
<p>For 2004-2005 Fall Pepperdine received 6,447 Applicants, of which 727 enrolled. Pepperdine is a small school, and they receive ALOT of applicants which means statistically they are always going to have a low acceptance rate.</p>
<p>Now take a comparable school as far as location, academics etc. goes.. UC Irvine..for Fall 2004-2005 there were 34,417 applicants of which 18,5171 enrolled. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is, there are just fewer available slots for freshman at Pepperdine than most colleges, and because of that, their acceptance rate will always be low. </p>
<p>We could speculate here for days as to why people apply to Pepperdine but that's all it would be, speculation.</p>
<p>But because I did apply to Pepperdine I will share MY reasons why, not that they should be found to speak for all applicants.</p>
<p>First off, I am a conservative, and Pepperdine has a reputation of being one of the more conservative schools in the country, especially on the west coast. Secondly I live in SoCal and plan on living here the rest of my life. A degree from Pepperdine (I am seeking a B.S. and M.B.A.) garners much prestige here in SoCal. Pepperdines alumni network here in SoCal is only rivaled by USCs'.</p>
<p>I am by no meens an adcom but do know plently of people who applied to pepperdine, since i grew up my entire life in south orange county. All lower quality students, not bad students or stupid, just somewhat lower stats. Almost all, even with their lower stats gained admittance to the school. All were students who couldnt get into usc or top and middle tier uc's. No offense to pepperdine, i considered applying there as well. I am also conservative, however i disagree with you that a pepperdine degree holds a lot of prestige in so cal. I dont know where in so cal you are, or who is telling you that pepperdine holds a lot of prestige in so cal, but you must be living in a different so cal than me. Pepperdines reputation in so cal and beyond is a buy a degree school, much like a slightly better version of chapman. I hope im not offending you, but im not gonna pretend that pepperdine is a prestigious school that is difficult to gain admittance to, that is simply not correct. It still however is a good school in a wonderful location. Hell, im applying there for law school.</p>
<p>i think you got your number off their because 181571 students did not enroll at uci, no where near that. Even if you meant 18157, its not even that close. </p>
<p>and ucchris, if you think that it is a buy a degree school and it is a place for medicore students, why are you applying for law school?</p>
<p>And for the record, I was not saying Pepperdine is a bad school. I think it's a very good school and I've really heard nothing bad about it (my dad actually considered turning down UCLA and Stanford (grad school) for Pepperdine, but ended up at UCLA) But, 28% is very low, like top 10 low.</p>
<p>fine Pepperdine is for the "lower quality students." So what UC are you at Chris?</p>
<p>i have nothing against pepperdine i am applying to law school there as a backup school. I actually like the school, especially the location. that doesnt change the fact of who the average applicant and average students are at the school. Just because it is not prestigious does not meen it is not a good school. Im not sure why you are taking it personal, ask around, it is common knowledge the school is simply not a prestigious school, known for accepting middle to upper class students with mediocre stats. of course there are exceptions, and some high achieving students attend there, as some high achieving students are present at most schools. Im not gonna argue about the prestige of a school, i believe it is quite obvious regarding pepperdine that it is not a prestigious university. Is this a joke, its not even worth responding too. Why does it matter what uc i go to, this post is about pepperdine, not me or my university. I do go to one of the top couple uc's however, so taking shots at me or my school wont work when comparing it to pepperdine. These couple posters who are proclaiming that pepperdine is prestigious must either a) attend the school, b) have family that attends the school, or c) be grossly uninformed about pepperdine. It is a fine/good school, deffiantly not prestigious or attracting lots of top students. There are exceptions of course, but overall the average applicant to pepperdine is not particularly high achieving. You can refute this all you want, but it is a well known fact. Ask around and see if others believe "a degree from pepperdine garners much prestige". I should know better than to argue with individuals who are biased regarding a specific institution.</p>
<p>OK first off, Pepperdine is a really good school, stop bad mouthing it. Yes a lot of rich kids go there but there are also a lot of kids that couldn’t afford to go to college at all and were just given remarkable aid in order to attend. As far as accepting a lot of “under achieving students” I would like to know where you are getting your stats on that. Almost every kid I know here was a straight A student in high school. Yeah there are some kids who go there who’s high school GPA’s may not have been 4.0’s, as with any school but they had other things to offer. They don’t strictly look for grades, they value a student’s character equally. Also being that they are religiously affiliated they like church kids. I know a ton of people who all applied to Pepperdine who had those 4.0s or whatever and were turned down, kids who now go to Cornell and Harvard, and other Ivy’s so obviously they have some standard. I wouldn’t go talking a ton about a school you don’t seem to know too much about. Also if your applying there shouldn’t you have more respect for one of you prospective law schools?</p>