Student Profile
Courtney
- Class: Junior
- Major: Communications
- Gender: F
- High School: Redondo Union High School
- Transfer Student: N
Big Picture
Pepperdine's campus is gorgeous! Its built into the hills so you have a view of the ocean from practically everywhere on campus. I also love how small of a school Pepperdine is, a lot of the faculty live in housing just above the campus too and they have their students over for dinner a lot which is really nice. Its a very community-oriented school which is so nice. I didn't want to go to a big school and just be one of the crowd, you don't get as many of the perks as big schools at Pepperdine, but you get a great community instead. The main thing people complain about is if they don't have a car they're stuck. Most of the time you can find a ride because lots of people have cars, but there's really nothing to walk to off campus, you have to drive about 20 minutes to get to anything worthwhile other than the Ralph's across the street which is the only thing open in Malibu after 10.
Academic Life
My favorite thing about Pepperdine's academics is the small class sizes, there are only a few classes that will be held in the auditorium and those are GEs. All of my professors except the two who taught in the auditorium have known my name and been available, and more than willing, to talk to me outside of class. Some of the professors have their students over to their house for dinner as well, and they've all been very interested in their students' wellfair as well as their academics. I've had a lot of great classes at Pepperdine, but my favorite by far is Great Books which is a 4 semester seminar in which you read great literature from all throughout history and discuss them. I had an excellent professor who was genuinly interested in all of his student's opinions and I learned as much from my fellow classmates as I did from him. A few of my friends were in different classes of Great Books and we would always bring it up outside of class and continue the discussions we'd had. At least in my group of friends, we love to discuss issues brought up in our classes, current events, or even spiritual issues with each other and I've learned a lot from them over the past two years.
Student Body
Pepperdine's student body is predominately white from middle to upper class backgrounds and mostly from California, Texas or Colerado. There is a strong Christian presence on campus and a lot of conservatives, but most students are more moderate and there are a decent ammount of liberals as well. There is also a fairly large gay community on campus for a Christian college anyways. There has been some tension between the more conservative students and gay students, but for the most part Pepperdine has a very friendly environment. One of the things that stood out to me when I first came there is that everyone will say hi to you and everyone holds the door for the person behind them. Even if you don't know anyone, walking down the halls you feel welcome because people will smile at you and people will hold the door for you. For the most part, Pepperdine students don't care about how much they'll be able to earn one day but about where they'll be able to go and what they'll be able to do when they graduate. Students either want to do what they love or want to be able to make a difference in the world when they graduate and a paycheck is not a priority.
The Best Things
community
The Worst Things
closed-mindedness
