Pepperdine University

Pepperdine University is a private university in Malibu, California, founded in 1937 by businessman George Pepperdine and affiliated with the Churches of Christ. It grew from a Los Angeles college into a Malibu campus on the Pacific, with additional graduate sites in the Los Angeles area. Seaver College is the undergraduate college; the university's defining feature for graduate study is a set of professional schools rather than a large research-lab complex.

The Graziadio Business School, the Caruso School of Law, the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, and the School of Public Policy house most graduate students. Law and public policy sit on the Malibu campus; business and education also use West Los Angeles and other regional locations. Fields most associated with Pepperdine graduate work are business, law, education, psychology, and public policy.

Enrollment is about 10,000 students, more than half of them in graduate and professional programs. International students form a noticeable share of business and law cohorts and come from dozens of countries. Faculty number in the hundreds. Alumni are concentrated in law, business, education, and Southern California public life.

Graduate degrees include the J.D., M.B.A. and specialized master's degrees, the M.P.P., and master's and doctoral degrees in education and psychology. Programs are largely taught and cohort-based rather than laboratory-supervised, except where psychology training uses clinical placements. The calendar is the semester system. Scholarships and assistantships exist, but many students in professional programs use other funding. Daily life mixes the Malibu campus with commuting across Los Angeles for classes, clinics, and internships.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Pepperdine University lists 50 graduate programs across 12 subjects: 34 master's programs and 6 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in law, education and business & management.