I honestly love Parsons! It's very challenging, and a lot of your free-time is taken up because you are constantly busy, but at the same time you're at the best Fashion Design School in the Country, one of the top in the World, and you get to meet some of the greatest people from all over the world, and bond, explore new york city, and work together to rise to the top. The best thing about Parsons I have to say is the way the School constantly pushes you to think more creatively, more outside of the box. Parsons thinks for the future, so they push their students to design for the future. Given that Parsons is a Private School, the class sizes are very small! In the Fashion Design Curriculum there is no more than 17 students per class, which is very good, because this gives you individualized attention that you will need with your professor, and this also allows you to interact and explore with your peers, to help each other, and inspire each other in a cozy atmosphere. Another great thing about Parsons is that the name is recognized anywhere. People take Parsons very seriously, it's like the Harvard of Fashion Schools, so when Parsons is on your Resume, it's highly favored.
For those students who like college campuses, well Parsons doesn't have a "Real" college campus, because it's spread out amongst new york city. The main headquarters for Fashion Design Students is in times square, but you will also have other classes that you would have to take that are at other buildings around new york city so you will have to commute, but don't worry! It's not hard and it's not scary. A lot of the buildings are in walking distance from each other.
As a Freshman you have to go through foundation year which means that it's not direct entry into your major if you want to go into Fashion Design. If you plan on majoring in Photography for instance you would go directly to your major and skip foundation year. Foundation year is your first year in School, you will not be doing anything related to your major. Instead you will be doing the fundamentals to art like drawing, painting, lab class (which is a class thats based off of working in groups), 3-d class, and 2-d class.
If you do have complaints about the school or a teacher the school is very supportive in trying to help you solve your problem. This past semester I actually had a problem with an professor and the administration responded to me quickly with emails offering to meet with them to get the situation solved.
One of the biggest things that I've noticed is that Parsons is not the typical school. you will not live the normal college life, with frats, sororities, school pride, sports, none of that exists at parsons. We do have sports teams but because we don't have our own facilities for these sports the school pride practically doesn't exists. I feel as if I'm living the life of a young professional. I go to school everyday, I come home do work, cook, intern, shop at the collest places in soho, travel to different boroughs, and explore nyc.