Christian mission and academic excellence are the twin pillars Pepperdine clings to despite Pepperdine’s recent drop in U.S. News & World Report ranking, said Kendra Killpatrick, senior associate dean of Seaver College and professor of Mathematics.
Pepperdine is committed to bettering students’ education through a variety of high-impact practices, Killpatrick said. Despite the U.S. News & World Report changing their measuring system in 2023 for determining the Best National University Ranking, Pepperdine is not all too concerned with improving their ranking just to move up in number.
“They’re [U.S. News & World Report] not the only measure,” Killpatrick said. “There’s lots of things that a U.S. News & World Report can’t measure about a school.”
Last Year’s Ranking
When the U.S. News & World Report released their 2023-24 rankings, it was calculated by a new set of measurements, according to previous Graphic reporting. Pepperdine dropped 21 spots from No. 55 in 2022-23 to No. 76 in 2023-24.
The research category carried more weight in calculating ranking, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Citations per publication and citation impact began influencing ranking.
“We rank lower on the research metrics, which I think is what you would expect when we focus on teaching,” Killpatrick said.
This Year’s Ranking
This year, Pepperdine dropped again, this time a smaller drop from No. 76 to No. 80 out of 436 national universities. Again, the measurements changed ever so slightly to drop first-generation graduation rates and first-generation graduation rate performance, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
However, in reality it’s a one-ranking drop. Universities that tie in rankings aren’t assigned a consecutive number, rather they are grouped together in a ranking, Killpatrick said.
In this year’s U.S. News & World Ranking Report, California Institute of Technology, Duke University, John Hopkins University and Northwestern University all tied for No. 6 in Best National University Rankings. The next ranking spot is recorded at No. 10 with University of Pennsylvania.
Last year and this year, Pepperdine tied with four schools, Killpatrick said. Following last year’s ranking the universities tied with include: Clemson University, Rutgers University and University of Illinois, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
None of the schools below us have catapulted over Pepperdine, since last year’s ranking, Killpatrick said. However, schools below us have since tied with us.
“It’s all pretty stationary,” Killpatrick said. “You know, people move a little bit, but not a lot.”
Prior to this year, first-generation students receiving the Pell Grant carried a 2.5% weight in the rating, according to the U.S. News & World Report. The graduation performance of first-generation Pell Grant recipients was tracked and calculated as a percentage adding and slightly increasing Pepperdine’s rating. However, since a universal definition of first-generation students does not exist, this rating component was dropped, Killpatrick said.
Since identifying oneself as a first-generation student is self-reported data, the U.S. News & World Report no longer includes it as a measure in its ranking.
Killpatrick characterizes this as a “negligible change.”
“When you go up a little, you go down a little,” Killpatrick said.
An area Pepperdine experienced a drop is in the first-year retention rate. This measures first-years enrolled from one fall to the next on a four-year average, Killpatrick said.
“We dropped out a class in the four-year average that had a 91% retention rate, and then our most recent class that was pulled in had a 86% rate,” Killpatrick said.
The 91% retention rate belongs to the 2018 cohort, Killpatrick said. The 86% retention rate belongs to the 2022 cohort.
Breaking Down the Data and Finding Trends
Over the years, Killpatrick said she’s worked on breaking down the data and locating any trends and patterns she finds. So far, there hasn’t been anything consistent enough to act upon, she said.
“It’s nothing that holds from year to year,” Killpatrick said.
Her team searches by gender, ethnicity, athletics, international students, distance from campus and financial aid, she said.
Since Pepperdine’s drop in U.S. World & News Report 2023 ranking, Seaver hasn’t made any drastic changes to keep up with the new measures introduced, Killpatrick said.
Understanding the Ranking
Since the U.S. World & News Report measurement changed last year, they moved away from school reported data to publicly available data, Killpatrick said. Pepperdine excelled in the category of small class sizes because it was self reported, otherwise class size data is not publicly available.
Pepperdine has stayed consistent in prioritizing its 13 to 1 ratio of faculty to student, according to Pepperdine’s website. That is hard to find at larger research schools with grant supported faculty who are teaching large lecture hall classes, Killpatrick said.
“We have committed to looking at the metrics that we have always looked at and making sure that those metrics, the ones that really measure the undergraduate experience, are not changing,” Killpatrick said.
Each year, Pepperdine ensures they stay at this 13 to 1 ratio, Killpatrick said.
It was brought to her attention, following the ranking release, in a meeting with the Student Government Association that upperclassmen worried the drop was a result of the incoming class, Killpatrick said.
“There’s nothing in the rankings that measures the quality of the incoming class,” Killpatrick said.
Schools can receive 5% of their ranking from incoming students’ SAT and ACT scores, but that requires a high percentage of students submitting their scores in order to be counted for this percentage, Killpatrick said. Pepperdine doesn’t receive enough submitted test scores to be counted.
Ranking Categories Pepperdine is Excelling in
In the Pell Grant graduation rate category, Pepperdine ranked No. 47 and Pepperdine’s overall graduation rate is ranked at No. 58, Killpatrick said. The financial resources per student which calculates how much of the budget is going to student’s experiences is ranked at No. 60, Killpatrick said. Pepperdine ranks No. 11 in study abroad programs and No. 45 in best undergraduate teaching, according to the U.S. World & News Report.
Addressing the Communities’ Concerns
Killpatrick said she encourages any students or community members concerned about the fall in ranking to focus on the student experience instead.
“What is the hallmark of a Seaver education?” Killpatrick said. “It is small class size. It is academic excellence. It’s commitment to the Christian mission. It is strong student faculty relationships.”
From this perspective, Pepperdine isn’t changing, Killpatrick said.
Pepperdine isn’t interested in changing its identity to fit a certain standard, but Killpatrick said they are always looking at ways they can improve college education.
“The rankings are one measure of a school’s experience for undergraduates, but it is not the only measure,” Killpatrick said.
It’s hard for the U.S. News & World Report to measure the standard that Pepperdine has set for itself, Killpatrick said. A measurement that looks at the number of students engaged in undergraduate research, internships and other important high impact practices, Killpatrick said.
“We care about it because we want the students that we bring here to stay here,” Killpatrick said.
Areas that Pepperdine is looking at improving include academic measures and retention ratings, but the focus isn’t just to improve a ranking, but to benefit student’s academic experience, Killpatrick said.
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Contact Rachel Flynn via email: rachel.flynn@pepperdine.edu
