A visual portfolio is required for all applicants to Parsons' BFA programs. It is optional for applicants to the BBA in Strategic Design and Management. We require applicants to submit their Common Application before uploading their visual portfolio. Parsons School of Design and Parsons Paris assess portfolios on the basis of the technical and conceptual abilities displayed in the work. In order to review your application, we need to receive all required materials.
You must submit your portfolio through your Admission Hub after submitting the Common Application. After submission of your Common Application, you will receive an email with instructions for accessing your Admission Hub. Your portfolio must be submitted within nine days of the application deadline. You must use the same email address that you used to complete your Common Application when you create and upload your portfolio. You may not make changes to your portfolio once submitted. All submissions are final and may not be edited.
Please do not submit links or URLs to personal websites for your portfolio. You must submit individual images of your work. If you would like to submit images from your website, you may include a screenshot or screen grab as part of your image submissions. If you are submitting videos, film clips, or similar media, they should be no longer than three minutes.
BFA Program Applicants (All BFA Programs)
Freshman and transfer applicants to BFA programs must submit a visual portfolio. The portfolio must be submitted after submission of the Common Application.
The portfolio should consist of eight to twelve slides and may include a range of visual media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, fashion design, animation, performance, graphic design, and sketchbook pages. You may submit sketch book images, including videos of yourself leafing through your sketchbook pages. We encourage you to show experimentation and range in terms of subject matter, approach, skills, and materials. Your portfolio does not need to include work specific to your chosen major, unless you are applying as a transfer student, in which case we do encourage major-specific work as well as images of work completed in any studio courses you’ve taken. You may upload several images or process materials in one slide.
All applicants submitting a portfolio are required to use the available description/text boxes to give brief descriptions of their process, including their ideas and concepts, sources of inspiration, and use of materials, etc., for at least two of their favorite pieces in the portfolio.
We recommend that you not submit AutoCAD drawings, anime drawings, or images that directly copy another artist’s work but instead focus on pieces that show us your unique style, point of view, and range. If you are submitting anime or cartoon drawings, consider full compositions instead of pieces that focus solely on character development and ideas.
Applicants are encouraged to learn more about the visual portfolio by reviewing our portfolio help tips.
BBA Program Applicants (Strategic Design and Management)
Applicants to the BBA in Strategic Design and Management are encouraged to submit a portfolio, but it is not required. BBA applicants may submit from two to twelve slides in their portfolio. For the full portfolio requirements, review the instructions for BFA program applicants. BBA applicants are welcome to include alternate work in their portfolio, like infographics pieces or data visualization work.