Pepperdine University Scholarship Calculator

Enter your LSAT and GPA to see where you stand against Pepperdine University's admitted class and the grant range it actually publishes.

Pepperdine University reports a median grant of $30,000 per year for students receiving financial aid, and 77% of its students receive aid, with 5% of aid recipients covering full tuition or more. The median award covers about 41% of annual tuition, so the school still costs roughly $42,920 per year in tuition after aid.

What three years would actually cost you

At Pepperdine University, three years of tuition, housing and fees cost $321,750 before aid. A grant of $30,000 to $55,000 a year would leave you paying between $156,750 and $231,750 over three years. The lower figure assumes the larger award applies every year, so treat it as a floor rather than a bill.

The net figure applies this school's median award to every year and every student, so it is a floor rather than a bill — it excludes students who receive nothing, tuition increases, and living costs beyond what this school publishes. See the full cost breakdown →

Is this school worth your score?

Pepperdine University sits in the 64th percentile of law schools by median LSAT but the 63rd percentile by median grant, so it gives about what its selectivity would predict. Among the 164 schools with both figures reported, that is a gap of 1 percentile points.

Selectivity and generosity are two different things. A school can sit high on one and low on the other — and that gap is the part worth knowing before you decide where to apply.

The comparison set is the 164 schools that report an annual tuition figure and a median grant. Schools reporting tuition per credit hour are excluded because there is no annual aid figure to line up against. Percentiles are rank positions, not estimates.

Where this school sits against the extremes

The most and least generous schools relative to their own selectivity, for reference:

Conditional scholarships at Pepperdine University

Pepperdine University gave conditional scholarships to 117 students in 2024, and 77% kept the award after review — 27 students had it reduced.

Conditional scholarships are awarded on need but have to be re-earned every year. If you drop below the GPA threshold, the award can be cut — this is the school's own reported figure, not an estimate. See the retention data for every school →

Is Pepperdine University keeping more conditional scholarships?

Between 2022 and 2024, Pepperdine University has been keeping fewer of them: the share of conditional scholars who kept their award moved from 78.0% to 76.9%, with 117 students entering with a conditional award in 2024. That path was not straight: it stood at 80.0% in 2023.

Is Pepperdine University getting more competitive?

Applications to Pepperdine University rose from 2,627 for the 2015 entering class to 4,272 for 2025, while the class enrolled 223 students — so there were 19.2 applicants per place, against 13.2 in 2015. Between 2023 and 2025 that figure moved from 20.1 to 19.2, and competition for each place has stayed roughly level.

Applicants per place is applications divided by the number who actually enrolled. It moves with how selective the school is, not with how many offers it sends — a school can issue more offers without becoming harder to get into. The summary above judges the direction over the three most recent entering classes, not across the whole span: a single unusual year in the middle of eleven is not a trend.

How Pepperdine University compares to schools at the same level

These are the schools with the closest median LSAT to Pepperdine University's. The table sorts by median grant, because that is usually what the comparison turns on once the academic profile is close enough — and the three-year net cost column shows what each of those grants actually leaves you paying.

Applicants per place is applications divided by students who enrolled. The competition column compares the most recent three entering classes rather than the full span, because a single year in the middle of that span is not a trend. Conditional retention is the share of students who kept a need-based conditional scholarship after year one review.

What this school's numbers mean

Pepperdine University is in . It admits 23.4% of applicants, and 77% of its students receive financial aid.

The four tiers above come straight from the school's 509 disclosure. They matter because the same coverage figure can mean very different things — a school where most awards are half-tuition grants and one where most are full-tuition grants offer students something quite different.

Related pages

• Pepperdine University financial aid breakdown — coverage, award size, all four tiers and conditional outcomes
• Pepperdine University ABA 509 report — every figure from the disclosure, section by section
• Pepperdine University cost of attendance — three-year total cost, ranked against every school
• Pepperdine University admissions data — acceptance, LSAT, GPA, bar passage and class size
• All-school scholarship estimator — compare every ABA law school at once