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Fashion School in Focus: Parsons
By admins | August 6, 2009
After receiving much interest and countless emails from future fashion students regarding Parsons School of Design, this post is long overdue. We went straight to the source and got the inside scoop from current student, and fabulous fashion blogger, Gilda! Enjoy!
If I could have a dollar for every person who have asked me how it is being a student at Parsons, and another dollar for every “don’t do it unless you know you want it” reply that I give, I would be a mighty rich woman right now. It’s been two years since I’ve transferred to Parsons, and I am still undecided if I love it or hate it.
My name is Gilda, and I will be a senior at Parsons the New School for Design this fall. I am a transfer student; I had graduated from Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, and transferred to Parsons into sophomore year.
Yes, one day when I grow up, I want to be a fashion designer. And apparently, so do the hundreds of teenagers who come in tour groups (YES, tour groups) to visit Parsons throughout the semester. With the popularity of reality shows like Project Runway, hordes of high school students and their anxious parents come in each week to see what we do in our classrooms. I think these reality shows are great, but they unfortunately also attract a large number of people who think that being a fashion student is glamourous and easy-peasy. Most do not understand the amount of work that is involved. We don’t sit around and drink wine and chitchat with Uncle Lagerfeld.
Why Parsons? There are great things about Parsons’ fashion program. Great things like some of their teachers, who are passionate and inspiring, who really have amazing knowledge and who really care enough about their students to want them to become the best designer they can be. Teachers who do not judge your design aesthetic, but accept you for your difference, who grade you based on how much effort you put into your work, instead of whether or not they like what you did.
I have been fortunate enough to have been blessed with some amazing teachers at Parsons, and under their wings I have grown. With their guidance, I have been made to open my eyes and broaden my mindset and horizons, which has been extremely helpful in the way that I design. Not all teachers insist on you following their recommendations, but the best of them give you options to think about, so that at least you are aware of different points of views.
What I also find particularly helpful are our critiques. At the end of most of our projects, we put our work up for everyone to see and have a critique as a class. Not only do teachers then give full feedback, students are encouraged to provide constructive criticisms and comments on a fellow students’ work, so we have the option to learn from one another and to accept how others might see our work, for better or worse.
Why not Parsons? Regrettably, it sort of goes downhill from there. Here is where it gets tricky, because I think most students in Parsons are undecided if there are more pros than cons about attending this school. Until you enter and start the semester, you will really have no idea how much work we do. Someone once told me that the fashion program at Parsons was in 2nd place for this list compiled of the most stressed students in the US, with medicine and law schools trailing far behind. To give you an idea of how much work we have, for our main core class, 18 hours of class (6 hours of design concepts and 12 hours of studio methods a week) gives us a measly 8 credits. And of course, our work is never done in the classrooms and perhaps mostly done at home outside of class. On top of that, we still have to fulfill all sorts of digital, liberal arts and other fashion studies credits.
For some reason, the administration decided that 2 weeks is enough time for us to come up with a design idea and to draw, paint, do flats, and present a project. It is really quite silly because often, it is simply not enough time to really explore our ideas and many students simply go through the motions just to get it done and completed on time. But why would one want to pay $40K a semester just to get mediocre results that can’t even go into one’s portfolio? For the rest of us who stand by our design aesthetics and slave through the nights, sleeping 2-3 hours a day or sometimes not sleeping at all, we go to each of our classes lifeless like zombies, sleep-depraved and attempting to mask our tired eyes with concealor. Some give up and resign to looking awful when even make-up seems too much of an effort.
The reason why Parsons graduates have such willpower It is not a great life. So many students drop out because it takes a lot of willpower and determination to really put yourself through this. Sometimes the teachers fail you based on grades, sometimes you get sick or honestly miss hearing your alarm clock because your body is in denial and refuses to wake up. 20 minutes later you’ve been considered absent, so you might fail the class too. Sometimes you give up because you cannot imagine going through 4 years of mental and physical torture, because, is it really worth it?
It is a known fact that the fashion program is bringing in the majority of the students to the New School. But everything has a concentration point, and if you don’t give up on your own, you are sometimes made to. You might be legitimately sick and hospitalized. But are you on your third absence? You might have failed your course. An aunt passed away, you say? Well you really need to think about your priorities.
The rest of us somehow hold on to a silly thing called Hope, hope that finishing our BFA at Parsons might mean a step closer to getting our dream jobs. (We are probably really just masochists who enjoy getting tortured.)
Network, network, network! One needs to be aware that although a fashion education at Parsons opens a lot of doors, by no means does it guarantee a job. You still need some proper business know-how, and you need to put yourself out there, and be nice and sincere about getting to know people. Everything you have heard about the importance of networking and connections, especially in this crazy fashion industry, is true. There are completely talentless people out there with amazing jobs because of who they know, who have never been to fashion school!!
Thinking about a future at Parsons? I’ve met and spoken to enough fashion students and graduates from other fashion schools to know that Parsons and FIT are surely the best fashion schools in America. But the two schools offer different things, and I’m told that FIT is a little more technical, while Parsons is more about training designers. I could be wrong but that seems to be the consensus.
My advice to anyone who is considering attending Parsons is this: How much of your life are you prepared to give up? Are you willing to sacrifice and work hard? You will, no doubt, take away a lot from your experience – and not just improve your skills, but hone your point of view, and also become more determined, resilient, stubborn, and have better time management. If you are willing to go through all that, you will have a chance of learning from some of the industry’s best teachers. Not all of them are great, but some of them are, and some of them will do wonders in opening your mind to the possibilities of a better you.
Big thanks to Gilda for giving our readers such a thorough and honest look into one of the country’s premiere design schools. Please don’t forget to visit her blog, Queen Gilda!
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Topics: Fashion school, scoop | 13 Comments » 
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August 6th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Gilda…what an refreshingly honest look at Parsons pros and cons!! I received an AAS from Parsons in 2002. The experience was it more grueling and more expensive than the MBA I received 4 years prior. Bravo to you and best wishes in your design career.
August 6th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
hello! first of all thank you so much natanya for letting me do this guest post. i hope i didn’t make it sound too exaggerated. we do have our “easy” weeks of course, but trust me, there are times when we’ve all hoped the school would burn down. JUST KIDDING.
alica>> thank you so much! i’ve heard a lot about the AAS program though i’m not sure what really goes on there. i wonder if it’s the same thing. at least you don’t have to think about other liberal arts classes i guess!! the last thing i want to do when i’m so tired is write a 10 page paper on culture. haha!
August 6th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Thanks for this, excellent info! I often wonder in the long run how much difference the large $$ on schools like FIT and Parson make for your career. So far (only 4 years in the biz) it doesn’t seem to make a big difference. I work with people from all educational backgrounds.
Thanks Gilda for sharing, this will be a big help to future fashion students!
August 7th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
interesting article. i never went to fashion school and i have a clothing line.. and it is still a TON of work.. definitely not all its cracked up to be in TV and movies, especially as a start up with no industry contacts or technical experience. there’s more “Nos” than “Yeses,” more spending money than making money, more stress, frustration and confusion, more flakes, etc, etc.
It all comes down to perserverence, determination and 110% belief in what you’re doing.. fashion school or no fashion school.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
This post just confirms to me what I felt before about designers and only increases my admiration for those who have the drive and guts to follow their dreams into reality. Can’t wait to see you out there making it big Gilda!
August 9th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
[...] also recently did a guest blog post on 39thandbroadway, on fashion school in focus, parsons!! i’ve had so many emails from high school students asking about fashion school and parsons, [...]
August 10th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
This is a great article, Gilda.
I honestly wish I had had some guidance of this sort years ago, when I stepped into Parsons’ Fashion Design program.
With unfortunately little guidance regarding my major choice on Parsons’ side, I ended up in the Fashion Design program for one semester and wasn’t prepared for the sheer amount of work, study skills, and time management skills that I’d need to get through it. I have a ton of respect for those who stick with it, it can be brutal.
I mistook my love for drawing people and beautiful clothes as a desire to pursue fashion, when what I was really passionate about was illustration.
My advice to high school students:
Honestly assess what drives you, your priorities, and your work ethic. Think about how you can best achieve your goals through schooling. You can work in the fashion world through so many outlets, without needing to to give up your dreams, by choosing a different pathway in.
August 11th, 2009 at 12:05 am
Thank you Gilda! Your information and advice is priceless. We so appreciate your effort in writing this piece. Best of luck and your line on Etsy looks fabulous!
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Gilda,
Its helpful to hear different opinions from different people about Parsons. I will be attending this Fall and am super excited and am aware of the workload. Maybe our experience wont be the same considering sleep doesnt exist in the US Marine corps. Ive had many sleepless nights in Iraq so I might not whine as much as others. Ive been a Marine for 7 years and know I will do well at Parsons considering I want so bad to do well because Im paying most out of pocket. This is something that I always thought of doing, just didnt have the luxury of having my parents pay for me to go to Parsons. Thats why I had to do what I had to do and serve our country to get some education benefits. But good luck to you and once again its nice to hear different experiences.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Gilda, thanks for the post. I found it very interesting. I teach and run the Fashion Technology program at El Paso Community College.
I have visited Parsons in the past and it is great to hear your opinion about your school.
Our students here also have an immense amount of work to do to achieve their dreams. We are a two year college.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Our daughter is currently in Foundation Year 1 at Parsons and in my opinion the workload is ridiculous. The social time is almost nil and the purpose of going to such a neat school in such a great city is the experience that the combination will give you as you pursue your goals.
You can not have free thought and generate ideas without proper sleep, time to reflect and to relate to your fellow students.
I have two degrees, an HBA (’80) and an MBA (’02)and although I remember some very tough times with workload, I do not remember periods such as what my daughter is going through.
RS
September 28th, 2009 at 1:45 am
hello everyone, thank you so much for reading through all that and i hope it provided a slight insight to the lives of parsons fashion students. it isn’t anything glamorous at all, as you can see!!
i am in my senior year now and currently working on my senior thesis, but i know i am also counting down the days to the moment i graduate! i really don’t mind the hard work; i know i have to get used to it because this is how it is in the industry, and while a lot of people get by by making connections, the truth is a lot of these people aren’t really working. the real people behind the scenes are usually overworked, poor and just getting by, but hanging in there all the same because they can’t imagine doing anything else.
my friends and i were joking that when we graduate, we’re going to use the parsons name as much as we can if it will even get us a job (doubt it, in fact, apparently a lot of avant garde companies are not interested in parsons students, particularly because of this annoying cookie-cutter program they force down our throats.). we were joking that the moment we even made it on our own two feet that we would scratch the parsons name from our resumes forever.
having said that, i have been to another school before parsons, called bunka fashion college in tokyo. bunka and parsons are both very known fashion colleges and they are both different. i don’t regret anything, and i just want to be clear that the only reason why parsons is so @^!(*$!@#^@ (don’t want to swear on someone else’s blog), is because of the way it is run. you pay so much money for a world-class education and you are met with idiots who are running the school. 99% of the stress is probably from there. the fact that we do not get anything out of them, the fact that we have no facilities, no room to do anything, no nothing.
our teachers, however, are fantastic. they are probably as stressed as we are. i hope they are at least paid well. i’ve been lucky because i’ve had really amazing teachers so far. some of my friends haven’t been lucky, but i have learnt a great deal from my teachers.
rob>>
i completely understand what your daughter is going through. is she going to the fashion program from sophomore year? if she is going to other programs, the work load will be completely lighter after foundation year. if it is the fashion program, then it will be a test for her and if she really wants to do this, she will finish it. i think it’s great that you are reading around the web to find out more about her school though! :) it is true that we get no sleep and it’s no use being in new york city because we might as well be in the himalayas. i’ve moved to nyc for 2 years now and i hardly know the place. in fact, i now hate new york because i equate it to school. it’s quite a pity, and perhaps when i graduate i’ll take a tourist route and discover new york for the first time. my only friends here are mostly friends from school; i did not grow up in america, and whatever friends i made when i first came here, i promptly lost because i never had the time to meet up with them. so all my friends are only those from the fashion program! they are the only ones who would understand if i had to stand them up because i had work to do, or because i just had to sleep!
October 27th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Hey gilda, im glad your studying something that you love to do, but sucks at the same time that sometimes you dont get to sleep at all!.
Hey do u know anything about the design and managment career? im really interested since i study business managment but def willing to do something related to fashion. any information? thanks.