Pepperdine.edu has admission and curriculum info for the Malibu, CA university
Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University is an independent Christian university located in Malibu, California. It has highly ranked programs in law, business, and dispute resolution, and is known for having one of the most attractive campuses in the area. It has strong ties with the congregation Church of Christ and its politically conservative administration, and was even named one of the nation’s largest conservative colleges by the Fiske Guide to Colleges in 2005.
Reputation
The Peace Corps of America counted Pepperdine as one of the Top Producing Colleges and Universities in 2007. It was ranked 54th among the best undergraduate national universities by the US News and World Reports. It also has one of the top 100 law schools and one of the top 25 MBA programs in the country,and its Straus Institute is currently #1 for dispute resolution.
Pepperdine has produced several notable graduates in the academe, business, entertainment, sports, and politics. These include scientist Christopher Chetsanga, Walt Disney EVP Robert Moore, ABC News host Bill Weir, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, and Olympic gold medalists Dain Blanton and Bob Ctvrtlik.
History
Pepperdine University was founded in 1937 by businessman George Pepperdine, who also owned (and made his fortune from) the Western Auto Supply Company. It was originally named the George Pepperdine College and located in south-central Los Angeles, focusing on liberal arts and heavily influenced by Christian ethics and ideals. George Pepperdine was a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, which remains strongly affiliated with the university today, although the school itself is non-sectarian and free from ecclesiastical control.
GPC expanded to its current location in 1971, funded by donations from Blanche E. Seaver, widow of lawyer and entrepreneur Frank R. Seaver. The late Seaver was impressed by the school’s vision and included Pepperdine in his final will. The new 830-facility was initially named the Seaver College, and is now one of Pepperdine’s flagship undergraduate colleges.
It was also in 1971 that the School of Law was added and the college gained university status. In the following years, Pepperdine University gained a strong reputation as one of the nation’s leading conservative institutes, and began attracting prominent conservatives as its faculty. These include Daniel Pipes, Douglas W. Kmiec, Arthur Laffer, Kenneth Starr, and Ben Stein.
Academic Departments
Pepperdine currently has five schools and colleges.
- Seaver College: Seaver College offers programs in the arts, letters, and sciences, and currently has about 3,000 students. It follows an interdisciplinary curriculum that allows its students to learn from a broad range of fields. There are 38 fields of study offered in the undergraduate level and seven tracks in the graduate level.
- Graziadio School of Business and Management: This is the fifth largest graduate business school in the country, with facilities all over California and 2,400 students in full-time and part-time status. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International). Besides undergraduate business management and MBA degrees, it also offers the International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) and Master of Science in Organization Development (MSOD) degrees, as well as joint degrees with other Pepperdine colleges.
- Graduate School of Education and Psychology: The Graduate School offers ten doctoral and master’s degrees in the two fields, guided by its vision of service through leadership. The education courses specialize in collaborative learning environments and include training in business, health, and social service professions. The psychology programs, on the other hand, explore new service-oriented fields such as clinical psychology and marriage and family counseling.
- School of Law:The Pepperdine University School of Law provides values-oriented legal education and is one of the nation’s fastest growing law schools. It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, and its programs are all approved by the American Bar Association. It also administers the renowned Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and offers the juris doctor/master’s degree in divinity.
- School of Public Policy (SPP):The SPP’s flagship program, the master of public policy (MPP), teaches students to use theories of policy design and analysis to implement change on various levels, from family and religious institutions to local and federal governments. It also offers joint degrees with the School of Law and the Graziadio School of Business and Management.
Campus and Facilities
Pepperdine’s main campus lies just outside Malibu city, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is marked by classic Californian and Mediterranean architecture. The Princeton Review voted the Pepperdine campus as the most attractive and having the best dorms (“Dorms like palaces”) in the country. The entrance to the campus is marked by smooth grassy slopes and the Philips Theme Tower, a stylized cross that pays tribute to the university’s Christian roots. The dorms provide views of popular sites in the area, including Long Beach, Catalina Island, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The Alumni Park hosts the annual graduation rites and offers a view of the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway. Above it lies the main academic park, which includes the undergraduate buildings of Seaver College, the Tyler Campus Center, the Stauffer Chapel, and the Ahmanson Fine Arts Center. The Payson Library, also in the plaza, serves as the university’s main library. There are also seven other libraries located in the main campus and satellite campuses.
The Drescher Graduate Campus is located northwest of the plaza. It includes many of the graduate schools and housing facilities for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate honors students. The Graduate School of Education and Psychology and the Graziadio School of Business and Management have their headquarters in West Los Angeles, as well as satellite campuses in Long Beach, Pasadena, Irvine, West Lake Village, Santa Clara, and Encino. There are also international programs offered in Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Student Body and Athletics
Despite being a Christian university, Pepperdine is non-sectarian and accepts students from all religious, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Its students come from all 50 U.S. states and over 70 countries.
The Pepperdine sports teams are known as the Pepperdine Waves, a reference to its proximity to the Pacific. The Waves are the only non-Catholic members of the West Coast Conference, an athletic conference made up of religious schools. In the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Pepperdine’s athletic program was ranked the most successful among non-football schools in Division I. It currently has 14 teams participating in the NCAA.
Website
The Pepperdine University website offers information on the school’s history, facilities, student and faculty demographics, and admission information for prospective graduate and undergraduate students.
Languages
English
Address
- 24255 Pacific Coast Hwy
- Malibu CA 90263 US
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