Pepperdine· Scholarship Stacking

Stacking Outside Scholarships at Pepperdine

How Pepperdine treats outside scholarships when they arrive on top of institutional merit aid.

Verified May 20269 days ago· PT

The verdict

Cost-of-attendance cap

At Pepperdine, an outside scholarship only triggers a cut when total aid would exceed cost of attendance. The strategy follows from that: outside scholarships are upside until the package would push past COA — then they start replacing institutional grants.

seaver.pepperdine.edu publishes the $99,260 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Stacking policy at Pepperdine

Outside scholarships may exceed tuition and fees but cannot exceed the standard cost of attendance. The Regents Scholars Program and George Pepperdine Achievement Award cannot be combined (student receives the higher award). The Christian Leadership Award stacks on top of merit awards. The Tuition Exchange Scholarship replaces all other institutional grants and scholarships.

Pepperdine caps total financial aid at the published cost of attendance. Students must report all outside scholarships, grants, and loans to the Financial Assistance Office. For need-based institutional aid, Pepperdine states that aid 'may not in themselves, or when combined with state grants, exceed the need level (as calculated by the federal formula) or cost of tuition.' Outside scholarships are coordinated with need-based aid under the COA cap. Pepperdine does not publish either an order-of-operations sequence for how outside awards reduce specific aid components or a dollar-for-dollar displacement formula for merit awards when outside scholarships are added. The Tuition Exchange Scholarship (80% of tuition) is not stackable with the George Pepperdine Achievement Award or the Pepperdine Grant. The Church of Christ Reciprocal Tuition Remission (50% of tuition for children of employees at seven partner institutions) is stackable with the George Pepperdine Achievement Award, Regents Scholarship, and Pepperdine Grant.

Source: https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/financial-aid/undergraduate/eligibility/terms-conditions.htm

Worked example

California Church of Christ student with a 3.85 unweighted GPA, 1410 SAT, who submits test scores and is selected as a Regents Scholar. Also receives the Christian Leadership Award and the PLP Helen Young Scholarship.

Aid sourceAmountNotes
Regents Scholars Program$42,000Mid-range of the $40,000-$45,000 Regents tier
Christian Leadership Award$5,000Church of Christ membership, stackable with Regents
PLP Helen Young Scholarship$5,000Church of Christ membership, stackable
Cal Grant A (estimated)$9,358California state grant for qualifying families
Total aid$61,358against $99,260 cost of attendance
Family out-of-pocket$37,902after stacking at Pepperdine

Common stacking mistakes

  • Missing the Church of Christ scholarship stack.

    Church of Christ families can combine the $5,000 Christian Leadership Award and the $5,000 PLP Helen Young Scholarship on top of the George Pepperdine Achievement Award or Regents Scholars Program. That is $10,000/year in faith-based aid that stacks with merit, but both require a recommendation from a church leader submitted by February 15. Families who miss the deadline or skip the recommendation leave this money on the table.

  • Confusing the Tuition Exchange Scholarship with stackable merit aid.

    The Tuition Exchange Scholarship covers 80% of tuition and is not stackable with the George Pepperdine Achievement Award or the Pepperdine Grant. If your student qualifies for both Tuition Exchange and a merit award, they receive Tuition Exchange, not both. However, the Regents Scholarship does stack with Tuition Exchange up to the tuition cap, making the combination valuable for exceptionally strong applicants from TE-member institutions.

Stacking questions families ask

Will outside scholarships reduce my student's Pepperdine merit award?
Pepperdine caps total aid at cost of attendance ($99,260 for 2026-2027 on-campus students). Outside scholarships must be reported to the Financial Assistance Office and are coordinated with need-based aid under the COA cap. Pepperdine does not publish a specific order-of-operations sequence for how outside awards reduce specific aid components, nor a dollar-for-dollar displacement formula for how outside scholarships interact with merit awards like the George Pepperdine Achievement Award. Contact the Financial Assistance Office at 310.506.4000 for your specific scenario.
Can Church of Christ students stack faith-based and merit scholarships?
Yes. The $5,000 Christian Leadership Award and the $5,000 PLP Helen Young Scholarship are both available to active Church of Christ members and both stack on top of the George Pepperdine Achievement Award or the Regents Scholars Program. That is up to $10,000/year in faith-based aid layered on merit. Both require a recommendation from a Church of Christ leader. The Christian Leadership Award deadline matches admissions (November 1 EA or February 15 RD), and the Helen Young Scholarship form is due February 15. The Church of Christ Reciprocal Tuition Remission (50% tuition for children of employees at partner institutions) also stacks with merit awards.

Rules that bite at Pepperdine

The trip wires we'd flag in a custom playbook. Each is derived from Pepperdine's own published policy, not generic advice.

  • 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.

  • capHard $99,260 cost-of-attendance ceiling

    Institutional aid at Pepperdine cannot push the package past $99,260. Big outside wins can mathematically reduce institutional grant once the ceiling is reached.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

A binding written answer beats a verbal hallway promise. This script is keyed to Pepperdine's published displacement type — paste it, fill in your name, send before you accept an outside award.

Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question — fall applicant

Dear Pepperdine Financial Aid Office,

I'm a fall applicant reviewing how outside scholarships interact with my institutional aid package. I've read the public policy at https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/admission/financial-aid/undergraduate/eligibility/terms-conditions.htm and the $99,260 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

If my package is institutional merit + Pell + a $5,000 outside scholarship and the total stays under the COA worksheet, can you confirm no institutional dollar is reduced?

If the same outside award pushes the total over COA by $X, which aid line item shrinks first — institutional grant, loan, or work-study?

A written answer (email is fine) is important because the outside-scholarship awarding bodies want confirmation before disbursing. Thank you for the time.

— [Student name], [Application ID if available]

How Pepperdine compares across our verified dataset

  • 30 of 78 verified schools in our dataset use cost-of-attendance cap displacement.

    Pepperdine is in a recognizable cluster — 30 schools share this category — useful framing when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.

  • 70 of 78 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.

    Pepperdine is one of them. The cohort minority (8 schools) only awards one-year scholarships — meaning the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Pepperdine’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.

More on Pepperdine merit aid

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