Case Study: How a Team of One Filled a New Pharmacy School in a Shrinking Applicant Market

Launching a new academic program is difficult under the best circumstances.

The Marshall University School of Pharmacy was entering a competitive market without an established reputation, full accreditation or a track record of successful graduates. Its location in rural West Virginia created both geographic and perceptual barriers. And the school needed to enroll a class of 80 students for financial stability.

At the same time, pharmacy applications were falling nationwide while established programs and newly opened schools were competing for a shrinking pool of students.

I was hired as the director of admissions and development and, in practice, the entire recruitment and marketing operation. There were no admissions counselors, territory managers, communications specialists or events team. For those two years, it was a team of one.

The class enrolled before these recruitment cycles included 67 students, about 84% of capacity. The “if we build it, they will come” mentality was not holding up.

One recruitment cycle later, Marshall University School of Pharmacy enrolled a full class of 80.

This job wasn't just to make a few improvements around the edges; it was to build an actual enrollment operation from nothing.

The challenge: Build the enrollment operation while the school itself was still being built..

The Work

The approach treated recruitment as one connected system, not a set of separate tactics — each piece built to make the next one work harder.

• Point recruitment at the right markets — with data, not habit. Working with the assistant dean, the plan started with a market-prioritization model built from IPEDS data and the school's own applicant and enrollment history, weighing relevant STEM majors, academic fit, retention and graduation rates, proximity and proven pipeline. It produced a ranked list of 50 priority institutions that determined where recruitment time went.
  

• Expand reach, then make every visit higher-intent. The school had attended five recruitment events the prior year; the next year, that grew to 42 — but volume wasn't the point. Travel shifted toward pre-health club talks, classroom presentations, faculty and adviser relationships, student panels and repeat visits to high-potential schools, plus new markets the model surfaced. Relationships built from scratch created access that broad fairs never could.
  

• Give the school a position worth choosing. Borrowing the equity of "We Are Marshall," the program claimed a line of its own: "We are not your typical pharmacy school." It opened the door to what genuinely set the school apart — active, collaborative, hands-on learning; first-year practice experiences; embedded professional certifications — and it spoke to students who didn't see themselves as typical, either. The message carried across the website, viewbooks, admit packets, events and advertising.
  

• Make the experience personal — and close the gap after deposit. A new student-ambassador team called incomplete applicants, reached admitted students and led tours. Two Preview Days launched where none had existed — drawing 195 attendees in their first year, both filled to capacity and waitlisted. Individual visits, tighter admissions rubrics and personal follow-through turned interest into enrollment.

The results

The clearest result is the one a dean cares about most:

Across the two cycles, matriculation rose from 67 to a capped class of 80 — a 19% increase, and effectively a full class.

The more convincing story is what happened deeper in the funnel, where growth is harder to manufacture. Year over year, from one recruitment cycle to the next:

• Matriculation increased 19%

• Deposits from targeted institutions increased 152%

• Completed applications from travel increased 84%

• Post-deposit melt declined from 21% to 14%

• Early decision grew from 1 applicant to 27, with 22 enrolling

• Travel-generated leads increased 97%

• Preview Days attracted 195 students and family members

  
  

Compared with the class enrolled before these cycles began:

• Overall completed applications rose 25%

• Verified applications rose 15%, by the second cycle

The school earned full accreditation during these years, and the recruitment and marketing overhaul was accepted as a poster presentation at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's national meeting.

Just as important, the systems outlasted the role: the pre-pharmacy club, the ambassador program, the territory model and a full early-assurance structure were all still in use — some launched after the work ended.

The takeaway

Declining applications, unfilled seats and post-deposit melt don't get solved with a bigger ad budget. They get solved with an operation: the right markets identified with data, relationships that create access, a position worth choosing and a personal experience that carries students from first interest all the way to enrollment.

Marshall was an unusually difficult version of that problem: a new, rural program that had not yet earned full accreditation, supported by a team of one and recruiting into a market already in decline.

That was 2014–2016, years before the enrollment cliff became front-page news in higher ed. The pressures have only intensified since.

If the approach worked then, against that headwind, it can work for a program with a real foundation to build on. That's the work I now do with health professions colleges through Square One Consulting.

If your program is fighting for applications, deposits or yield, let's schedule a conversation and map where your funnel is leaking.