Pepperdine University Overview

Located in Malibu, California, Pepperdine University is a private not-for-profit institution. Pepperdine is located in a safe and convenient suburb.

What Is Pepperdine University Known For?

• Students at Pepperdine have an easier time paying back their loans. The school's student loan default rate is only 1%, compared to the national rate of 10.1%.
• The doctor's degree is the highest award offered at Pepperdine.
• In 2017-2018, 53% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Pepperdine bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $65,500 a year. That's about 61% more than their peers at other schools.
• It takes the average Pepperdine student 4.1 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Pepperdine University Rankings

We have ranked Pepperdine as #212 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation. Out of the 204 colleges in California, it is ranked at #27.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Pepperdine has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#139	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#215	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Pepperdine.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#10	Best Human Resource Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Instructional Media Design Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Public Relations & Advertising Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#21	Best Liberal Arts General Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#21	Best Liberal Arts & Humanities Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#68	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#79	Best Business Administration & Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#92	Best Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#93	Best Parks, Recreation, Leisure & Fitness Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#153	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Pepperdine has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#16	Best Human Resource Management Schools	College Factual
#40	Best Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities Schools	College Factual
#40	Best Liberal Arts General Studies Schools	College Factual
#96	Best Psychology Schools	College Factual
#112	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#159	Best Business Schools	Business Degree Central

Where Is Pepperdine University?

Contact details for Pepperdine are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	24255 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90263
Phone:	310-506-4000

How Do I Get Into Pepperdine?

You can apply to Pepperdine online at: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/application/undergraduate

Admission Requirements for Pepperdine

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Pepperdine?

Pepperdine has a fairly low acceptance rate of 42%, which makes it more selective than most schools. Take time to make sure you submit all the requested materials and you prepare the application in full. You don't want to get denied right off the bat due to an incomplete application!

Approximately 40% of accepted students are men and 60% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 46%, and the acceptance rate for women is 39%.

Average Test Scores

About 70% of students accepted to Pepperdine submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 600 and 690. Math scores were between 600 and 720.

Pepperdine received ACT scores from 38% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 27 and 34. Math scores were between 25 and 30. Composite scores were between 26 and 31.

Can I Afford Pepperdine University?

The overall average net price of Pepperdine is $51,945. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Pepperdine, approximately 45% of students took out student loans averaging $7,715 a year. That adds up to $30,860 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Pepperdine is 1.1%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Pepperdine University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,459 undergraduate students at Pepperdine, with 3,132 being full-time and 327 being part-time.

There are also 6,095 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 3,132 full-time undergraduates at Pepperdine, 42% are male and 58% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Pepperdine University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	386
Black or African American	153
Hispanic or Latino	488
White	1,498
International Students	340
Other Races/Ethnicities	267

Geographic Diversity

California students aren't the only ones who study at Pepperdine University. At this time, 39 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 90 countries are represented at Pepperdine. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.

Online Learning at Pepperdine University

In 2019-2020, 9,554 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Pepperdine has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 17th most popular in California for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of Pepperdine

The following table shows how Pepperdine is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Dispute Resolution	#12	#12
Legal Professions	#55	#55
Educational Assessment	#58	#58
Legal Research	#72	#72

Online Growth Rankings of Pepperdine

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Pepperdine University was 181.5%. This is the #298 largest growth rate of all schools that are mostly online. This refers to all students at Pepperdine regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Pepperdine University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	185	473	0	658
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	250	29	279
General Psychology	78	112	0	190
Law	0	0	138	138
International Business	28	104	0	132
Public Relations & Advertising	109	0	0	109
Applied Mathematics	0	100	0	100
Legal Research	0	94	0	94
Educational Administration	0	31	55	86
Dispute Resolution	0	86	0	86
Health & Physical Education	67	0	0	67
Human Resource Management	0	62	0	62
International Studies	53	0	0	53
Economics	47	0	0	47
Political Science & Government	43	0	0	43
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	42	0	42
General Biology	40	0	0	40
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	40	0	40
Teaching English or French	0	29	0	29
Public Policy	0	26	0	26
Communication & Media Studies	24	1	0	25
Real Estate	0	24	0	24
Radio, Television & Digital Communication	20	0	0	20
Writing Studies	20	0	0	20
Drama & Theater Arts	16	2	0	18
Liberal Arts General Studies	17	0	0	17
Accounting	16	0	0	16
Philosophy	15	0	0	15
Mathematics	14	0	0	14
Finance & Financial Management	13	0	0	13
Instructional Media Design	0	2	11	13
Teacher Education Subject Specific	13	0	0	13
Ethnic Studies	12	0	0	12
Religious Studies	12	0	0	12
Sociology	12	0	0	12
Fine & Studio Arts	12	0	0	12
Music	11	0	0	11
Journalism	10	0	0	10
Film, Video & Photographic Arts	10	0	0	10
Nutrition Science	8	0	0	8
General English Literature	7	0	0	7
Romance Languages	7	0	0	7
Mathematics & Computer Science	6	0	0	6
Area Studies	1	4	0	5
History	5	0	0	5
Physics	5	0	0	5
Chemistry	4	0	0	4
Educational Assessment	0	3	0	3
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	3	0	0	3
Theological & Ministerial Studies	0	2	0	2
Germanic Languages	1	0	0	1
Middle Eastern Semitic Languages	1	0	0	1
Natural Sciences	1	0	0	1
Entrepreneurial Studies	0	0	0	0
Communication & Journalism (Other)	0	0	0	0
General Education	0	0	0	0
Sustainability Science	0	0	0	0
Arts & Media Management	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	946	1,487	233	2,666

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Infratec~commonswiki under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.