Anyone have info about Pepperdine? When looking at website, it shows average GPA of freshmen is 3.7 and tuition is $30,000-$40,000. Are athletes held to that high entrance criteria? My son was invited to a junior day and would consider it but he's under a 3.7 and the money is pretty high. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

NPRMom - I see it says average GPA thus there would be students there with below a 3.7 GPA. Secondly, if he does well on his SAT's or ACT's that will be given heavy consideration. Also, if the coach really likes him as a player, that should help as well. One thing he can do in the mean time is take an SAT or ACT prep class and take as many practice exams as possible before actually taking one of these tests. You can always pick up the phone and call the admisssions office there and they should be able to give you the best advice possible.

Below is a recent thread where Pepperdine was mentioned rather prominently throughout the thread. I have been there recently and my hunch is that once your son steps foot on that campus, that is where he'll want to go.

Dream School

Can't speak for the academics or money, but we just played a 3 game set with them and the facility is great, overlooking the ocean. Can't imagine the coach has any trouble recruiting quality players.

As a side note, probably the best plus is having Pamela Anderson as one of their biggest supporters. She was at two of the games and stuck around to sign autographs and take photos . She's shorter than I pictured her . Definitely got the opponents (dads) attention.

Downside was $8 a ticket to get in. Maybe they charge more for the side attraction.

My son attended a junior day and a camp at Pepperdine. It is a strong program in a pretty competitive conference and all conference members are church affiliated schools (West Coast Conf-UofSan Diego, Loyola, Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Pepperdine....) There are some religion related class and other requirements at Pepperdine.

As noted above, 3.7 is the average so some are below and some above. If you're close enough and decents SATs etc. and the coach wants you, don't see a problem (especially it being a private school)

Pepperdine recruits heavily from the Southern California area. The campus is in a beautiful setting in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
It is considered a rather conservative school atmosphere. It is pretty isolated from the rest of the Los Angeles area and Malibu is a very small community. Depending on traffic, you're a good 40 minutes or so into the rest of Los Angeles/Santa Monica area.

When we attended Junior day the coach made a point that they are a small school and money is not abundant and the 11.7 scholarships get stretched among as many as possible. But, I don't really know what the financial circumstances truly are.

Most love the campus and the dorms are really quite nice. It is a rather non-traditional looking campus, very modern and built into the hillside. The baseball facilities are great as are the other sports facilities. There is no football team. Basketball, tennis and volleyball seem to get the most attention there. If it matters to you, most Pepperdine baseball games have a smaller crowd than at a typical high school game. (not sure of Pam Anderson's attendance schedule).

I can't speak about Pepperdine directly, but my son plays at St. Mary's In this conference academics come first. The schools are all proud of the graduation rates etc. My son is pulling down a 3.1 which when you consider the time devoted to baseball is pretty good. He will graduate in 4 years as well. The guys without the grades do not play. The relgion requirements are minor, a couple of classes.

Pepperdine is the only non-catholic school in the conference.

Thanks for all the info. I wish I had a large enough bank account to allow my son to add this to his wish list. He's not a great test taker and will be taking the SAT this weekend in hopes of scoring well. I think he's ok in the GPA but not MIB(money in Bank) Thanks for your help!

I thought Pamela was actually bigger in person than I pictured her. Oh that was shorter? My mistake.