Overview of institution

This, and the rest of the page, use info from the most recent year available, generally 2023.

• Institution kind: Doctoral/Professional Universities

• Undergrad program: Balanced arts & sciences/professions, some graduate coexistence

• Graduate program: Research Doctoral: Single program-Education

• Enrollment profile: Majority graduate (see more details below)

• Average net price for undergrads on financial aid: $47,804 (2.5 times the equivalent cost of Harvard).

• Actual price for your family: Go here to see what your family may be asked to pay. It can be MUCH lower than the average price but also higher for some.

• Size and setting: Four-year, medium, highly residential

• In state percentage: 46% of first year students come from California

• In US percentage: 89% of first year students come from the US

• This institution has a religious affiliation of Churches of Christ

• Graduation rate (within 6 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 84% (this is what is usually reported as “graduation rate”)

• Graduation rate (within 4 years) for students seeking a Bachelors: 76.4%

• Student to tenure-stream faculty ratio: 12.7 (undergrads to tenure-stream faculty) [Tenure explained]

• Student to faculty ratio: 8.2 (undergrads to all faculty)

• Degrees offered: Certificate of less than 1 year, Certificate of at least 12 weeks but less than 1 year, Bachelor’s degree, Postbaccalaureate certificate, Master’s degree, Doctor’s degree: research scholarship, Doctor’s degree: professional practice

• Schedule: Semester

• Institution provides on campus housing: Yes

• Dorm capacity: There are enough dorm beds for 2579 students

• Freshmen required to live on campus: No

• Advanced placement (AP) credits used: Yes

• Disabilities: 14.00 percent of undergrads are registered as having disabilities.

Map

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Comparisons

The sections below show this institution compared with others. The ones listed are ones it has identified as peers, who consider themselves peers, and/or who the federal government considers peers. If a comparison school has the same value as the focal school, its cell is grayed out. In fields where there is a common view that higher (or lower) values are better, the best values are in blue, the worst values are in red. If there isn’t a sense of a particular value being better, values are shown in varying shades of green. Arrows show where there is a signficant trend over time for a school. You can swipe across the table to see more of it; the focal school column is always visible.

• Pepperdine University lists these schools as ones to compare itself within federal IPEDS data, and they do the same back: Babson College, Loyola Marymount University, Southern Methodist University, University of San Diego, Chapman University, Biola University, University of Denver, Calvin University, Azusa Pacific University
• Pepperdine University compares itself to these institutions, but not vice versa: Stanford University, Princeton University, University of California-Los Angeles, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Notre Dame, New York University, Vanderbilt University, University of Southern California, Washington University in St Louis, Northeastern University, Georgetown University, Rice University, Emory University, Pomona College, Boston College, Brigham Young University, Wake Forest University, Claremont McKenna College, Texas A & M University-College Station, University of Maryland-College Park, Carleton College, Case Western Reserve University, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, George Washington University, Baylor University, Syracuse University, Macalester College, Santa Clara University, Occidental College, St Olaf College, George Mason University, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, Wheaton College, Pace University, Valparaiso University
• These institutions compare themselves to Pepperdine University, but not vice versa: University of Richmond, Regent University, Clark University, University of St Thomas, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott, Samford University, Marquette University, University of San Francisco, Lipscomb University, California Baptist University, Duquesne University, University of La Verne, University of the Pacific, California Lutheran University, Westmont College, Alabama A & M University, St Catherine University, DeVry University-California, The Master’s University and Seminary, Lubbock Christian University, The College of Saint Rose, York University, La Sierra University, National University, Faulkner University, Northeastern University Oakland, Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion, University of Phoenix-Hawaii, Claremont Graduate University, The Chicago School at Los Angeles, Fuller Theological Seminary, Heritage Christian University, Trinity Law School, Alliant International University-San Diego, Fielding Graduate University, The Chicago School at Anaheim, Reiss-Davis Graduate School, The Chicago School at San Diego

Enrollment

General

Teaching

Tenure track faculty are those who are eligible for tenure. This includes both pre-tenure and tenured faculty. Once faculty get tenure, they are (generally) protected from being fired for intellectual reasons, helping to ensure their freedom in teaching and research. They can still lose their positions for misconduct, financial problems, not fulfilling their duties, or other reasons.

Non-tenure track faculty are not eligible for tenure. Some are hired one semester at a time, some have multi-year contracts. They typically have a higher teaching load than tenure track faculty, leaving less time for research or other creative endeavors. They are also easier to fire than tenured faculty. Sometimes they are external experts (a noted musician, a former senator) who are hired to teach some classes without the expected permanence of a tenure-track position.

Note that this chart uses US federal demographic data: it only has two genders and a specified set of ethnicities and races.

Having a low student to faculty ratio is considered a good thing by many, as it can mean more individual attention.

Geography

This has information on the location of the institution. See the about page for more information on what the metrics are and how they are calculated.

Financial Aid

Graduation

Note these are bachelors graduation rates in six years, not four (this is standard). Sample sizes can be small for some demographic groups with few individuals in a school, leading to large year-to-year fluctuations and often extreme values for those groups (if there are two individuals in the class with a given identity, the possible graduation rates are 0%, 50%, or 100% depending on whether zero, one, or both students graduate within six years).

Library

Libraries are changing rapidly. Note that how institutions count digital collections may vary.