Eliminated 8/23, on price and an unreachable tennis team. It costs about twice Biola to get a team Cooper didn't end up needing.
Every other school here offered courts and intramurals. Pepperdine offered a competitive club team that plays UCLA, USC, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly and goes to nationals, the exact tier built for a strong player who is not a D1 recruit. It came closest of the six to answering the tennis question outright.
It still lost on price: roughly double Biola's cost with a merit figure that never fully resolved, for a competitive team Cooper decided he didn't need once he said he was open to either competing or playing. Eliminated 8/23, kept as the record of that reasoning.
| Tuition | $74,370 |
|---|---|
| Fees | $832 |
| Housing and food | $20,490 $21,560 returning |
| Direct bill | ~$95,692 |
| Full cost of attendance, on campus | $99,258 |
| Need-based aid at $300k | $0 |
| Merit, planning number | ~$18,152 Average, not a grid |
| Net per year | ~$77,500 |
| Four years | ~$310k |
Pepperdine over four years costs more than Baylor and Cal Baptist combined. That is the sentence to hold onto while reading the tennis section below.
What this covers: the net figure is built off the direct bill, so tuition, fees, housing and the meal plan. Books, travel and personal spending add roughly another $3,500 a year on Pepperdine's own numbers. Full breakdown.
Pepperdine publishes three different numbers for the same thing, and they do not reconcile. Their scholarships page says Regents and Blanche Seaver "start at $20,000 a year." Their affordability page publishes actual award ranges, all renewable up to four years: Regents Scholars $40,000 to $45,000 a year, George Pepperdine Achievement Award $16,000 to $35,000, Christian Leadership Award $5,000, Special Achievement Scholarships $500 to $57,000. And 98% of new Seaver students receive institutional merit and/or need-based aid. Against that, the Common Data Set average non-need award is $18,152, which is what the net figure above is still built on.
Hypothesis, not confirmed One way to make all three true at once: $18,152 is the average across every merit recipient, $16,000 to $35,000 is the ordinary band most people land in, and $40,000 to $45,000 is a small top tier that fits Regents being the top 8 to 10 percent. If that holds, a 4.0 and a 1470 point at the upper part of the ordinary band with a real shot at the top tier, roughly $51,000 to $56,000 net a year rather than $77,500, about a $98,000 swing over four years. The $77,500 net above stays the headline planning number until the Seaver call resolves which figure actually applies to you. This page will not pick the flattering number for you.
Scores are not optional for this award, even though Pepperdine is test-optional for admission. Verbatim: "SAT/ACT/CLT scores are required in order to be considered for the Regents Scholars Program scholarships." Withholding the 1470 here would silently drop you out of Pepperdine's largest award. Submit it. Your 1470 sits above their 75th percentile of 1410, so the top-8-to-10-percent band is genuinely in play. Plausible, not certain.
A third-party listing separately claims the top Regents award covers full tuition, which would net roughly $21,300 a year. Pepperdine's own $40,000-to-$45,000 top-tier figure now makes that look less likely, but neither confirms nor rules out the other. Unverified
That would have been the call to make: "Your affordability page lists Regents Scholars at $40,000 to $45,000 and the George Pepperdine Achievement Award at $16,000 to $35,000, while your scholarships page says Regents starts at $20,000. Which is current, and where does a 4.0 unweighted with a 1470 land?" Pepperdine was eliminated on 8/23 before that call was made, on price and tennis rather than on this unresolved number.
An earlier version of this site said Pepperdine's Early Decision guarantees at least $25,000 in merit. That was wrong. Their admissions FAQ, verbatim: ED "does offer preferential consideration for admission and includes an exclusive $2,000 scholarship." The real cost of ruling out ED is a $2,000 scholarship and some admissions edge, not a $25,000 merit floor. Worth naming precisely rather than leaving the wrong number standing, since a wrong figure that makes a past decision look expensive is worse than none at all.
Early Action closes November 1, which together with Baylor is now the earliest college deadline on the whole site. Full timeline on the apply page.
| Plan | Deadline | Binding | Decision | Deposit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Action | Nov 1, 2026 | No | Dec 21 | May 1 |
| Early Decision I | Nov 1, 2026 | Yes | Dec 21 | Feb 1 |
| Early Decision II | Jan 15, 2027 | Yes | Feb 1 | Mar 1 |
| Regular Decision | Jan 15, 2027 | No | Mar 19 | May 1 |
The transcript blocker is fixed. Pepperdine requires homeschooled applicants to submit test scores and to document the curriculum followed and the grades obtained; it is test-optional for everyone else. The junior-year gap that blocked this is resolved, per Cooper directly: "my transcript is fine, urs is outdated."
Pepperdine Club Tennis competes in USTA Tennis on Campus, Southern California region, against UCLA, USC, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly. Co-ed roster of roughly 20 to 25, practices twice a week with extra sessions before competition, and the team goes to nationals.
Biola gives you eight free courts. Baylor gives you eighteen courts including indoor. Point Loma gives you six plus a 23-court club nearby. All of that is access.
Pepperdine is the only school here that gives you a team, a schedule and opponents.
That team is still the only one of its kind on this list. It is also now optional. You're open to competing or to just playing, which means the question is no longer "where can I compete" but "what is a competitive team worth". Pepperdine costs about $310,000 over four years against Biola's $163,000. That is roughly $130,000 for a feature you don't need, and no club team is worth that.
Pepperdine now rests on a range, not a total unknown, and the range comes from Pepperdine itself. Their own affordability page puts Regents Scholars at $40,000 to $45,000 a year for the top tier, against a $20,000 starting floor on their scholarships page and an $18,152 average across all merit recipients. If you land the top tier, Pepperdine nets roughly $51,000 to $56,000 a year, still short of Biola or Cal Baptist but genuinely in the conversation. If you land only the floor, Pepperdine stays close to $77,500 and is not a real option. That range was the single highest-value unmade phone call in this process, until Pepperdine was eliminated 8/23 without it being made.
Varsity is D1 West Coast Conference and historically elite. That is not a path at UTR 6.7, and it does not need to be, because the club is the point here rather than a consolation prize.
That framing now has a number behind it, not just a guess. Published D3/NAIA recruiting guidelines (NCSA) put a 6.7 at or below the bottom of the realistic range for D3, with NAIA further out of reach still. Biola and Point Loma's actual roster UTRs remain unverified, so neither is ruled out, but the evidence that exists points the same direction: this club is the only competitive tennis path on this site with real data behind it, not the fallback option.
Pepperdine's entire official club sports program is four teams: tennis, surfing, beach volleyball and esports. There is no ultimate club at any level.
A Pepperdine Graphic article describes a team founded around 2008-09 (the "Fightin' Waves", later "Pepperdine Arson") and reports that ultimate there was seen "more as a backyard game than an organized collegiate sport." That is historical. The current official club sports list is the authority, and ultimate is not on it. Campus Recreation does allow students to start new clubs.
Pepperdine wins tennis outright and loses ultimate outright. It is the only school on the site at either extreme.
Because ultimate is a for-fun thing for you, this is the cheapest possible place to take a loss. But it is a genuine loss: every other school on this list gives you at least intramural pickup, and Pepperdine gives you nothing unless you found the club yourself.
Dining is run by Bon Appétit Management Company since 2022, the same operator as Biola, and the strongest published sourcing standards in contract college dining:
Waves Café stations that fit how you eat, and several are unusually well matched: Simple Seven (nothing artificial, no more than seven ingredients), Farmer's Field (salads on local California produce), @bone + broth, and Sprouted and Granary. Also on campus: Nature's Edge, an organic and gluten-free market next to the café, and a certified farmers' market every other Tuesday in Mullin Town Square, 11am to 2pm.
A Pepp Post survey of 50 students rated the food negatively to middling. The complaints are raw food, limited café hours and meal-plan price. For dietary restrictions the only certifiably safe option is a "Minus 9" station, and the reporting describes students left to scrape together meals that are "often not nutritious or satisfying."
You cannot walk away from it either. Pepperdine requires a meal plan for the full first two years, with no low-swipe floor and no opt-out. At Cal Baptist a bad café is an inconvenience. Here it is two years of mandatory purchase.
Do not decide this one from a webpage. The stations listed above are genuinely the best match on the site for how you eat, and the students eating there say the food is not good. The full dining comparison across all six schools explains why that combination keeps showing up.
That is lighter than Biola (until age 21, roughly three years) and lighter than Point Loma (three years), and heavier than Baylor (one year). Middle of the pack, but it is two years welded to the meal plan described above.
Dorm quality, room types and whether any residence hall has kitchen access are not established for Pepperdine. Unverified Given how the food section reads, kitchen access is the question worth asking here.
It passed every filter he set except money. West coast, sun, Christian (Churches of Christ), 30 miles from LAX with constant Seattle flights. And it was the only school on this list with a competitive tennis team, which turned out not to be needed once he said he was open to either.
It failed on money, hard: about $310,000 over four years against Biola's $163,000, on a merit figure that never fully resolved. The food, the other thing he cared about, read far better on paper than it apparently tastes.
The unresolved question, for the record: whether the Seaver call would have found Pepperdine's own top tier, $40,000 to $45,000, rather than the $20,000 floor. That range was still open when the school was cut on price and tennis rather than on this number.