What GPA does my student need to keep a Pepperdine merit scholarship?

It depends on the tier. Regents Scholars and Blanche E. Seaver Scholars must maintain a 3.25 cumulative Pepperdine GPA, full-time enrollment, and no academic probation, with no appeals process if the scholarship is lost. The George Pepperdine Achievement Award requires only a 2.0 cumulative GPA and Satisfactory Academic Progress. The Christian Leadership Award requires a 2.0 GPA, and the PLP Helen Young Scholarship requires a 2.5 GPA. All merit scholarships apply only to tuition charges and are prorated if a student drops below full-time enrollment.

How is the Regents Scholars Program different from the George Pepperdine Achievement Award?

The Regents Scholars Program is a competitive scholarship for the top 8-10% of admitted first-year students, worth $40,000-$45,000/year, requiring submitted test scores and a 3.25 GPA for renewal. The George Pepperdine Achievement Award is a broader merit award ($16,000-$35,000/year) that is automatic for students with a 3.60+ unweighted GPA, does not require test scores, and requires only a 2.0 GPA for renewal. Students cannot hold both; they receive the higher award. The Regents program also includes cohort housing, a Great Books seminar, and networking events with university leadership.

Pepperdine· Renewal Rules

Keeping Pepperdine’s Merit Aid for Four Years

What the financial-aid office actually requires after freshman year: minimum GPA, credit-hour pace, and the cliffs that quietly downgrade families mid-degree.

Verified May 20262 months ago· PT

At a glance

Renewable tiers: 4 of 4
One-time tiers: 0
Tiers with published renewal terms: 4
Renewal risk profile: moderate

Renewal risk profile

Pepperdine's renewal bar is achievable for steady students but isn't generous. Most awards require a cumulative GPA in the 3.0–3.4 band plus full-time enrollment. Audit the strictest tier on this school's list before assuming the four-year value is locked in.

Regents Scholars Program: Full-time enrollment
George Pepperdine Achievement Award: 2.0 GPA
Christian Leadership Award: 2.0 GPA
Special Achievement Scholarships: See notes

Renewal terms by tier

Regents Scholars Program
$40,000 to $45,000/year
To keep it: Renewable for four years (8 semesters). Requires 3.25 cumulative Pepperdine GPA, full-time enrollment, and no academic probation. There is no appeals process for loss of this scholarship.
Source: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/application/undergraduate/affordability/
George Pepperdine Achievement Award
$16,000 to $35,000/year
Entry requirements: 3.60 unweighted recalculated GPA guarantees at least $16,000/year; higher amounts based on holistic review GPA
To keep it: Renewable for four years. Requires minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA and Satisfactory Academic Progress. Award applies only to tuition charges and is prorated if enrollment drops below full-time.
Source: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/application/undergraduate/affordability/
Christian Leadership Award
$5,000/year
To keep it: Renewable for four years. Requires minimum 2.0 cumulative GPA and Satisfactory Academic Progress.
Source: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/application/undergraduate/coc.htm
Special Achievement Scholarships
$500 to $57,000/year
To keep it: Renewal at departmental discretion. Requires Satisfactory Academic Progress and may require maintaining a specific number of major-specific units.
Source: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/application/undergraduate/affordability/

How families lose this aid

Not realizing the George Pepperdine Achievement Award has a guaranteed floor.
Students with an unweighted recalculated GPA of 3.60 or higher automatically receive at least $16,000/year. Many families underestimate Pepperdine's affordability because they see the $99,260 sticker price and assume no merit aid is forthcoming without a separate application. The automatic floor means competitive students know a minimum discount before they even apply.

Renewal questions families ask

What GPA does my student need to keep a Pepperdine merit scholarship?: It depends on the tier. Regents Scholars and Blanche E. Seaver Scholars must maintain a 3.25 cumulative Pepperdine GPA, full-time enrollment, and no academic probation, with no appeals process if the scholarship is lost. The George Pepperdine Achievement Award requires only a 2.0 cumulative GPA and Satisfactory Academic Progress. The Christian Leadership Award requires a 2.0 GPA, and the PLP Helen Young Scholarship requires a 2.5 GPA. All merit scholarships apply only to tuition charges and are prorated if a student drops below full-time enrollment.
How is the Regents Scholars Program different from the George Pepperdine Achievement Award?: The Regents Scholars Program is a competitive scholarship for the top 8-10% of admitted first-year students, worth $40,000-$45,000/year, requiring submitted test scores and a 3.25 GPA for renewal. The George Pepperdine Achievement Award is a broader merit award ($16,000-$35,000/year) that is automatic for students with a 3.60+ unweighted GPA, does not require test scores, and requires only a 2.0 GPA for renewal. Students cannot hold both; they receive the higher award. The Regents program also includes cohort housing, a Great Books seminar, and networking events with university leadership.

Rules that bite at Pepperdine

The renewal trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook, derived from Pepperdine's own tier rules and not generic advice.

cliffOne ACT point can move the award by +$16,000/yr (from $0 to George Pepperdine Achievement floor)
Pepperdine publishes a tier ladder where crossing Reaching the 3.60 GPA automatic floor changes the marginal value by +$16,000/yr (from $0 to George Pepperdine Achievement floor). The single broadly automatic award. Below 3.60, no automatic merit is promised. Applies to tuition only and prorates below full-time.
renewalRegents Scholars Program: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Renewable for four years (8 semesters). Requires 3.25 cumulative Pepperdine GPA, full-time enrollment, and no academic probation. There is no appeals process for loss of this scholarship. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.

How Pepperdine compares across our verified dataset

669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Pepperdine is one of them. The cohort minority (82 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.
63 of 751 verified schools publish a marginal-value cliff table we can quantify.
Pepperdine is one of them. Most schools won't tell families what one ACT point is actually worth. At the schools that do, a strategic retake is sometimes mathematically more valuable than test-optional positioning.

Sources used on this page

Every renewal claim is checked against Pepperdine’s own published materials.

policyPepperdine stacking policy
cdsPepperdine Common Data Set
coaPepperdine cost-of-attendance worksheet
tierRegents Scholars Program
tierChristian Leadership Award
scholarshipPepperdine Legacy Partners (PLP) Helen Young Scholarship
scholarshipUbben Endowed Scholarship for Production Design
scholarshipNatural Science Division Entering Student Scholarship