FAQ

You will be a part of a select cohort of peers working in industries and in positions at the intersection of design, innovation, and business. In addition, you will study management topics in the context of design-driven processes and innovation, in both local and global settings. Finally, and most importantly, you will learn about the management of design and innovation, not just through an add-on "elective" or "concentration," but in depth and throughout the program.

It has a cohort-based, one-course-at-a-time model that provides a supportive community, a clear path to completion, and an accessible, flexible way to achieve your goals without leaving your day job. In fact, you will only need to step away from your desk for 18 days during the full course of the program.

With an international reach that spans multiple continents and a student body that makes the university one of the most globally diverse in the United States, Parsons is an industry leader in its culture and its commitment to offering its students a learning experience rich in opportunities for global engagement. As a member of our cohort of global executives, you'll have the chance to take full advantage of Parsons' network of interconnected design laboratories and international business partners from urban hubs based in Paris, New York, and Asia. Based in three of the most vibrant creative economies in the world, the program takes full advantage of each city, offering extraordinary educational, cultural, and professional opportunities from day one of the program.

Even in today’s highly digital business environment, success in enterprise relies on human connections. As a member of our class of creative and business professionals, you will learn side by side with peers from many diverse industries—and those looking to lead change in the dynamic new global creative economy. As you progress through the program in a small, intimate, and selective cohort, the relationships you develop in the studio will flourish into a network you can build upon for years to come.

To succeed in 21st-century commerce and industry, you need to cultivate new approaches to solving problems, streamlining systems, and identifying opportunities for growth. The MS in Strategic Design for Global Leadership, with its design-led approach to learning and global reach, is at the forefront of preparing working professionals to take on the mantle of creative leadership in their companies.

Whether you want to start your own company or rethink business practice from within, this program will foster entrepreneurship that can productively challenge traditional frameworks and lead meaningful change in the new creative economy. In the program, you take real-world scenarios as the basis for creative and strategic studio projects; everything you learn will be relevant and quickly applicable to your current business context—all without taking you away from your desk on most weekdays, keeping you invested in maximum productivity with minimal sacrifice.

If you're a busy working professional who wants to build his or her background in strategic management, you've found the right program. Brilliant design is about creating harmony between component parts — an ethos that lives at the very core of our program, especially when it comes to building our courses around your schedule.

Our innovative module-based format is both immersive and flexible. Specially tailored to meet the learning styles and preferences of today’s working professional, it requires you to be away from your office for only 18 days.

Spanning a year and a half, the program kicks off with intensives at our Paris campus, interspersed with immersive weekends of accelerated learning and supplemental integrative week-long studio intensives in New York and Asia. It has a cohort-based, one-course-at-a-time model that provides a supportive community and clear path to completion—all without requiring you to leave your job.

While it is true that studying 100 percent online offers you a great deal of flexibility, this program offers three distinguishing features that make it of special value for and well suited to the needs of today's professionals.

• Each course kicks off with a face-to-face intensive with your cohort, creating a hybrid learning model (a mix of online and on-campus learning), which studies show is an optimal way to absorb information and implement what you learn.
• The program is committed to building a cohort of peers who begin and complete the program at the same pace, in the same classes, all together. This ensures that you build a strong network as the program progresses, and with the convenient focus of just taking one course at a time. This network will inevitably offer you invaluable connections as you move through the program and yield professional relationships that will last long after.
• You will not only have the advantage of learning online but also experience the world economy in three dynamic cultural urban hubs: Paris, New York City, and Asia.

Yes. In addition to a bachelor's degree, you must have a minimum of five years’ work experience in any industry. A letter of recommendation from a current supervisor is requested with your application.

No, because all courses are blended. Each seven-week course begins with a three-day (Friday-Sunday) face-to-face seminar in Paris that is followed by online interaction with faculty and fellow students. Each of the two 16-week studio courses includes a week-long intensive on-site—one in New York and one in Asia.

No, but the real-world, project-based nature of the curriculum enables students to shape their learning in the context of their own professional challenges.

The MS in Strategic Design for Global Leadership curriculum is designed as an integrated and highly structured nine-credit-per-semester course of study. Students can complete the program on campus in New York City, fully online, or through a combination of online and on-site modules. The New York City location provides opportunities to connect to organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs driving creativity and commerce through classes, internships, and extracurricular projects. The program is also STEM designated. 

The MS is designed for the working professional, requiring only 18 days away from the office. It is structured around six seven-week courses that begin with in-person seminars at our Paris campus, followed by online interaction with faculty and fellow students and punctuated by two 16-week studio courses—in New York City and Asia—providing an immersive global experience including design challenges with major international corporations and organizations.