College Profiles

Overview
The New School is a progressive university comprising eight schools bound by a common, unusual intent: to prepare and inspire students to bring actual, positive change to the world. From its Greenwich Village campus, The New School launches economists and actors, fashion designers and urban planners, dancers and anthropologists, orchestra conductors, filmmakers, political scientists, organizational experts, jazz musicians, scholars, psychologists, historians, journalists, and, above all, world citizens—individuals whose ideas and innovations forge new paths of progress in the arts, design, humanities, public policy, and social sciences.

Parsons The New School for Design is one of the premier degree-granting colleges of art and design in the nation. Founded in 1896 by the American impressionist painter William Merritt Chase, Parsons focuses on creating engaged citizens and outstanding artists, designers, scholars, and business leaders through a design-based professional and liberal education. Parsons students learn to rise to the challenges of living, working, and creative decision making in a world where human experience is increasingly designed. The school embraces curricular innovation, pioneering uses of technology, collaborative methods, and global perspectives on the future of design. Parsons graduates and faculty members appear on the short list of outstanding practitioners in every realm of art and design—creative, management, and scholarly. Responsive to societal needs and predictive of cultural trends, Parsons makes tangible, usable, and beautiful The New School’s mission of bringing positive, innovative change to the world.

Approximately 2,400 undergraduate students and more than 400 graduate students are enrolled in Parsons The New School for Design. Nearly a third of all degree-seeking students are international, coming from sixty-eight countries. Some 2,000 continuing education students take individual courses or are enrolled in certificate programs. More than 700 children and young people attend weekend and summer precollege programs.

Parsons and The New School are fully accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Its credits and degrees are recognized and accepted by other accredited colleges, universities, and professional schools throughout the United States. The New School, a privately supported institution, is chartered as a university by the Regents of the State of New York.

Location and Community
Parsons’ main campus is located downtown in Greenwich Village, a historic neighborhood with a style and atmosphere found nowhere else in New York City. The area is home to design and art studios, galleries, shops, and restaurants as well as avant-garde artists, musicians, and writers. With its rich cultural resources, international sophistication, and cutting-edge attitude, New York City is a vibrant environment that has inspired and challenged artists and designers throughout its history. The city offers more than eighty museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Parsons faculty members teach the architecture of the city, the fabric of its populations, and the language of its commercial and private communication. In short, the faculty uses New York City as an urban design laboratory to teach students to look, learn, and feel the world around them.

Academic Life
The degree programs at Parsons are academically challenging, demanding, and, ultimately, professionally rewarding for emerging designers. On average, students register for 16 to 18 credits (six classes) per semester. Most students are in class for 20 to 30 hours per week and spend an equivalent amount of time in preparation. Studio critique sessions and critical studies seminars depend on thoughtful student input and discussion. All courses require active attendance and regular participation.

The A.A.S. degree requires 65 credits; the B.B.A. and B.F.A., 134 credits each; and the B.A./B.F.A., 180 credits. The five-year B.A./B.F.A. program (BAFA), is offered in conjunction with Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts.

In 1920, Parsons School of Design, as it was known then, was the first art and design school in America to found a campus abroad. Today, the school offers its students the possibility to expand their horizons by studying at art and design schools around the world. During their junior year, bachelor’s degree students may enroll for one or two semesters in another school in the United States or abroad. Several departments assist students in securing noncredit internships that provide valuable work experience and professional contacts. 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.

More than 700 full- and part-time faculty members teach at Parsons. All of them are successful professionals in the design, art, and business fields. The student-faculty ratio is 9:1. Faculty members and visiting critics—such as installation artist Brian Tolle, architect David Lewis, communication designer Charles Nix, and interior designer Shashi Caan—are principals in their own design firms, hold key positions in the art and design community, and frequently have their work published. Parsons’ strong ties to industry bring numerous guest lecturers and critics into forums and classrooms. Visiting critics include Richard Meier, Donna Karan, Mayer Rus, Arthur Corwin, and Paula Scher.

Majors Offered:
Undergraduate degrees offered are the Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.), the Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), the Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), and the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.A./B.F.A.).

Associate degrees are available in fashion marketing, fashion studies, graphic design, and interior design. Bachelor’s degrees are offered in administration, architectural design, communication design, design and management, design and technology, fashion design, fine arts, illustration, integrated design, interior design, photography, and product design.

Facilities and Resources
The Angelo Donghia Materials Library and Study Center, funded by the Angelo Donghia Foundation, comprises a library, a gallery, a computer lab, and a lecture hall. The library allows students and faculty members to review and check out state-of-the-art resources, putting the latest and most exclusive materials at their fingertips. Regular exhibitions at the gallery run by a full-time curator are open to the public, creating an open forum and dialogue with the larger interior design community. The heart of the architecture program is the large, open studio loft where students develop design projects in interaction with faculty members and peers. The 5,000-square-foot space is supported by wireless digital technology, allowing for direct access for printing and plotting from students’ desks to the adjacent twenty-five-station computer laboratories. In addition, a consortium membership gives Parsons students access to the libraries of Cooper Union and New York University.

Over the past several years, The New School has invested more than $30 million in a series of extensive labs. The Knowledge Union consists of state-of-the-art technology spread over four floors; the 600 networked workstations include all relevant platforms. Servers support work that ranges from traditional print output to online projects using webcasting and secure transaction technology. Specialty work—whether audio or video production, MIDI, recording, or physical computing installation—takes place in private studios spread across the campus. Portable production equipment, including digital still, video, and audio, is readily available. Digital projectors, surround sound, and active white boards feed into equipment racks that enable presentation of all media types.

The University Computing Center, on the third and fourth floors at 55 West 13th Street, is a central hub of technologies. Computers and hands-on classrooms support multimedia, Web design, and desktop publishing as well as word processing and research. The Fashion Computing Center at 560 Seventh Avenue provides computing support for the Parsons B.F.A. program in fashion design. It has more than forty UNIX, Macintosh, and Windows workstations and color and black-and-white printers. Software includes high-end graphic and three-dimensional modeling applications.

Campus Life
More than 1,100 students live in the seven different residence halls in the Greenwich Village and Wall Street areas and take part in the social and educational programs and activities provided there. Through the enthusiasm and creativity of the resident advisers, students are exposed to diverse programs that take advantage of the rich traditions of The New School and the cultural opportunities of New York City. Through programming that addresses students’ intellectual, artistic, and creative efforts, the residence life program fosters the development of the whole student. The University endeavors to provide comfortable and inclusive communities where students and staff members promote cultural awareness and academic success and develop new ideas and diverse experiences. For more information, students should contact the Office of University Housing at universityhousing@newschool.edu or 212-229-5459 or visit the Web site at http://www.newschool.edu/studentaffairs/housing/.

Expenses
Full-time (12—19 credits) undergraduate students pay $15,135 in tuition and $140 in fees per term. Although housing costs vary depending on accommodations and meal plan selected, room and board average about $11,800 per year. Additional fees may apply.

Financial Aid
Almost 75 percent of Parsons students receive some kind of financial aid, awarded on the basis of financial need and merit. The University’s financial aid office is open year-round to assist students and their families with the task of meeting educational costs. For information on specific kinds of assistance, amounts of funding, loan repayment, and scholarships for students meeting certain criteria, students should visit Student Financial Services’ Web site at http://www.newschool.edu/studentservices/financialaid/.

Admission Requirements / Application
Parsons seeks serious, responsible, and highly motivated applicants. Each applicant is reviewed individually with regard to experience, achievements, and potential for artistic growth. While Parsons recognizes the benefits of strong artistic preparation, some applicants are admitted based on their academic strengths more than their visual material. For B.F.A. applicants, a large part of the Admissions Committee’s decision is based on portfolio evaluations and the Parsons Challenge, as well as academic achievement. For B.B.A. applicants, academic achievement is weighted heavily along with the Parsons Challenge. The A.A.S. program is best suited to students who have had some prior college experience, are clear about their interests within the world of design, and are prepared for rapid immersion in a professional course of study.

All applicants must submit the completed application, the nonrefundable $50 application fee, and original copies of official high school and/or college transcripts. Bachelor’s applicants who are residents of the United States must also submit SAT or ACT scores; international students must send in their TOEFL scores (minimum of 580 on the paper-based exam or 237 on the computerized exam). All applicants must submit the multipart Parsons Challenge exercise. A portfolio is required of all B.F.A. applicants (except those applying to study design and management). This must consist of eight to twelve pieces of work, including, but not limited to, drawings, paintings, photographs, digital media, or design. A personal interview is recommended for all applicants.

The admission and financial aid deadline for the fall semester is February 1, and the deadline for spring admission is October 15. The Admissions Committee reviews applications and sends students its decision a few weeks after all materials are received.

Parsons The New School for Design
Admissions Office
65 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10011
212-229-8989
E-mail: parsadm@newschool.edu
http://www.parsons.newschool.edu/