Parsons School of Design

Parsons The New School for Design enables students to develop the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing society. Students collaborate with peers, industry partners, and communities around the world and in New York City, a global center of art, design, and business.

At Parsons, a diverse community of students develops critical thinking skills and applies them to challenges ranging from environmental degradation to physical accessibility and humanitarian crises. Through a network of interconnected design laboratories, students explore global phenomena at multiple sites and scales of engagement, from on-campus research initiatives to partnerships that affect change in New York and around the world.

In fall 2013, we began offering undergraduate degree programs at our new Paris campus—visit Parsons Paris to learn more. Selected graduate programs will launch in fall 2014.

Parsons The New School for Design (known colloquially as Parsons or Parsons School of Design) is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is one of the seven divisions of The New School. Parsons was the first school in the United States to offer programs in fashion design, advertising, interior design, and graphic design. Parsons offers 25 undergraduate and graduate programs in art and design, and it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious fashion schools in the world. It is ranked as the #1 fashion school in the United States and the #2 fashion school in the world, just behind Central Saint Martins in London.

Parsons is known to have educated some of the most renowned and innovative designers, some of which include Donna Karan (founder of DKNY), Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Narciso Rodriguez, Alexander Wang, Anna Sui, Jason Wu, Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez (founders of Proenza Schouler), Behnaz Serafpour, Sophie Buhai & Lisa Mayock (founders of Vena Cava), Prabal Gurung, and Jenna Lyons (President and Creative Director of J.Crew).

A pioneer in art and design education since its founding in 1896, Parsons has cultivated outstanding artists, designers, scholars, businesspeople, and community leaders for more than a century. Today, when design thinking is increasingly being employed to solve complex global problems, Parsons is leading new approaches to art and design education.