PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN
CASE STUDY
Slate-integrated Student Search
How PCA&D Boosted Enrollment and Expanded Market Reach
Pennsylvania College of Art & Design (PCA&D) is a 4-year private art college in Lancaster, PA with an undergraduate population of roughly 400 students.
Reason for partnership
PCA&D hoped to combat stagnant new student enrollment metrics by working with The Parish Group to redefine their historical take on student search for a small, private art institution. Seeking wholesale growth in applications, admits, and new enrollments, PCA&D needed to expand target market reach while simultaneously weaning its dependence on third-party systems that kept external student search processes at arm’s length.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with The Parish Group for almost 15 years and across three uniquely different institutions. In each instance of partnership, we’ve achieved quantifiable success increasing qualified inquiries, applications, and deposits. TPG is nimble and responsive, taking the time to get to know us as a college to help us develop and execute effective strategies that meet our goals in an ever-more challenging environment.”
TPG’s Approach
The Parish Group helped PCA&D internalize the student search process via their institutional Slate instance. Beginning with search model development directly from source data, TPG was able to expand target market volume at minimal cost to reach new interested audiences via freshly branded search campaigns sent directly from Slate. Additionally, attribution reports were developed in-instance to keep PCA&D up to speed on campaign performance and enrollment ROI in real time.
Outcomes
PCA&D cuts costs while increasing applications, admissions, and deposits.
In year one of the partnership, PCA&D was able to cut other outsourced marketing reliance at a cost-savings, while application volume increased by 24.7%, and offers of admission rose by 18.9%, demonstrating the effectiveness of a more strategic and data-driven approach.
At the same time, net deposits saw a 29.6% increase, reflecting stronger applicant commitment and improved conversion rates.
