Parsons The New School for Design

At Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, students not only learn about art and design—they redefine it. They explore new ways to use art and design to address society’s evolving needs, including using green technology in architecture projects, developing educational video games, and building portable, low-cost dwellings. The faculty members, many of whom are working artists and designers in New York City, bring their professional expertise into the classroom, challenging and encouraging students to realize their artistic and professional goals.

Parsons’ undergraduate programs include architectural design, design and management, design and technology, fashion design, fashion marketing, fine arts, graphic design, illustration, integrated design, interior design, photography, product design, and an innovative new program in environmental studies (submitted for New York State approval).

Campus and Surroundings

Parsons’ New York City location provides students with perhaps their most important resource. An international center for art, entertainment, and commerce, the city is an exceptional place to study design. The School’s main campus is located in Greenwich Village, and the Fashion Design Department is located in midtown, in the heart of the Fashion District. For Parsons’ students, New York City becomes their home, campus, and source of ideas and inspiration. What else would someone expect from a city that is home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and about eighty other museums? Parsons’ faculty members use New York City as an urban design laboratory, and Parsons students have the opportunity to show their work in some of the major galleries and design fairs in New York. In the past, student work has appeared in Chelsea galleries and museums, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, the Art Director’s Club, and Saks Fifth Avenue, among other notable venues.

Program Facilities

Parsons The New School for Design is part of The New School, a major urban university, and students benefit from being part of a diverse university community. Campuswide liberal arts programs give Parsons students the opportunity to study with other New School faculty members and share classes with students in liberal studies, social and political science, and performing arts programs. Taking full advantage of the university setting, Parsons and Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts offer a five-year dual-degree program in which students simultaneously complete a fine arts or design B.F.A. and a liberal arts B.A. (http://www.newschool.edu/babfa) The New School offers students access to more than 1,000 computer workstations and several libraries. The Adam & Sophie Gimbel Design Library includes new and rare books and special collections books on art and design as well as mounted plates, slide collections, periodicals, and a digital image collection accessible online. A citywide consortium links the libraries of Parsons, The New School, New York University, and Cooper Union, providing unparalleled access to information. The new Angelo Donghia Materials Library and Study Center houses a computer lab, gallery, lecture hall, and library that put state-of-the-art materials at students’ fingertips.

Plans unveiled the 25,000-square-foot Shelia C. Johnson Design Center at Fifth Avenue and 13th Street. This innovative “urban quad” features state-of-the-art galleries, lecture and meeting spaces, and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Archives Center, a major collection of drawings, photographs, letters, and objects documenting twentieth-century design.

Faculty, Resident Artists, and Alumni

Parsons’ alumni appear on the short list of outstanding practitioners in every realm of art and design. Alumni are an important part of the Parsons community and make up an unparalleled network of designers and artists. Notable graduates include Mark Badgley and James Mischka, fashion designers; Sheila Bridges, interior designer; Bridget de Socio, graphic designer; Peter de Seve, illustrator; Sue de Beer, artist; Angelo Donghia, interior designer; Jamie Drake, interior designer; Bea Feitler, graphic designer; Tom Ford, fashion designer; Albert Hadley, interior designer; Edward Hopper, artist; Marc Jacobs, fashion designer; Jasper Johns, artist; Donna Karan, fashion designer; Reed Krakoff, CEO of Coach; Alex Lee, product designer and president of OXO; Ryan McGinley, photographer; Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, fashion designers (Proenza Schouler); Norman Rockwell, illustrator; Joel Schumacher, filmmaker; Richard Silverstein, graphic designer; Anna Sui, fashion designer; and Brian Tolle, artist.

Student Performance Opportunities

As a prominent member of New York City’s art and design community, Parsons provides students with extraordinary opportunities to participate in public exhibitions and programs on campus and around the city. Supplementing studio and classwork, university-sponsored panel discussions and lectures offer interaction with top professionals from all areas of art and design. Past guests include Chuck Close, Frank Gehry, and Parsons alumna Donna Karan.

Special Programs

Parsons has been an innovator in the field of art and design since the school’s founding in 1896, and it was the first art and design school in America to found a campus abroad. Today, Parsons has affiliate schools in Paris; Kanazawa, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and Altos de Chavon in the Dominican Republic.

Parsons’ outstanding career services program helps connect students to internships while they are in school and exciting professional opportunities with top firms after they graduate. Current and past internships include Marc Jacobs, Polo–Ralph Lauren, HBO, MTV, the New York Times, Rolling Stone magazine, Marvel Comics, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: continuous. Notification date--freshmen and transfers: July 1. Required: high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, minimum 2.0 high school GPA, portfolio, SAT or ACT test scores, home examination, minimum TOEFL score of 550 (paper-based) for all non-native speakers of English. Recommended: minimum 3.0 high school GPA, interview. Auditions held 1 time. Portfolio reviews held continuously by appointment on campus; the submission of slides may be substituted for portfolios when distance is prohibitive.