If you’re applying to Parsons School of Design, you’ve likely already encountered one requirement that sets it apart from nearly every other art school application: the Parsons Challenge. The Parsons Challenge is mandatory for all BFA applicants, and it’s not a formality — it’s a serious component of the application that admissions evaluators take as seriously as your portfolio. This post explains exactly what the Parsons Challenge is, what it’s evaluating, and how to approach it in a way that genuinely strengthens your application.
What Is the Parsons Challenge?
The Parsons Challenge is a home assignment that requires applicants to create new original artwork based on a specific prompt related to their existing portfolio, accompanied by a written essay explaining their process. Unlike a portfolio, which presents work you’ve already created, the Parsons Challenge asks you to demonstrate how you think and develop new ideas in response to a brief.
The current format for BFA and BA/BFA applicants:
- Choose one piece from your submitted portfolio
- Create a new visual work inspired by the theme or concept within that piece
- Write a 500-word essay describing how your ideas developed
- Submit up to two additional visual pieces that document your creative process (optional but strongly recommended)
- All media are acceptable: drawing, video, photography, sculpture, 3D work, collage, digital images
All submissions are uploaded through SlideRoom, the same platform used for portfolio submission.
What Is the Parsons Challenge Actually Evaluating?
Understanding what the Challenge is designed to measure is essential for doing it well. According to Parsons, the Challenge helps the Admissions Committee understand how a prospective student:
- Develops ideas from a starting point to a developed concept
- Visually communicates a theme across multiple pieces
- Articulates their process in writing
This is fundamentally different from what your portfolio evaluates. Your portfolio shows what you can make. The Parsons Challenge shows how you think — how you take an existing idea and push it further, make connections, and explain your creative decisions.
This means the Parsons Challenge rewards conceptual thinking and process visibility, not just technical skill. A student with an average technical level who can articulate a clear, interesting line of inquiry and document it thoughtfully will often outperform a technically stronger student who produces polished but unexplained work.
How to Choose Your Portfolio Piece
The first strategic decision in the Parsons Challenge is which portfolio piece to build from. Consider:
Choose a piece with strong conceptual potential. You’re going to develop it further — so choose something that has unexplored directions, questions you haven’t yet answered, or themes that feel personally significant. A technically proficient but visually straightforward piece (a still life, a portrait study) is harder to develop conceptually than a piece rooted in an idea, a personal experience, or a formal experiment.
Choose a piece where you can clearly articulate the original intention. Part of the 500-word essay should describe what the source piece was exploring. If you struggle to explain what the piece was about, it will be harder to build a compelling development narrative from it.
Choose a piece that gives you room to try something new. The Challenge should show creative range and willingness to push ideas — not simply produce another version of the same piece.
How to Develop the New Visual Work
The new visual work you create for the Parsons Challenge should feel like a genuine development of the source piece — not a copy, not an unrelated work, and not simply a larger version. Strong Parsons Challenges typically do one of the following:
- Shift the medium while preserving the concept (a painting becomes a sculpture, a photograph becomes a collage)
- Zoom in on a specific element of the source piece and explore it in depth
- Invert or challenge an assumption in the source piece
- Expand the scale or context of the original idea
The two optional additional process pieces are not truly optional in practice — they are strongly encouraged and most competitive submissions include them. Process documentation (sketches, material experiments, development stages) shows evaluators how your thinking evolved, which is the entire point of the Challenge.
Writing the 500-Word Essay
The essay is half of what evaluators read, and it should be treated with the same care as a personal statement. The 500-word essay should cover:
1. What the original portfolio piece was exploring. Describe the concept, question, or idea behind the source work in your own words — clearly and specifically.
2. How you decided to develop it. What direction did you choose to push it in, and why? What alternatives did you consider and reject?
3. What the process of making the new work revealed. Did your understanding of the idea shift as you made the piece? Did you encounter unexpected challenges or discoveries?
4. What the new work is saying or doing. Describe the completed new piece and how it relates to and departs from the original.
Write in first person, in a specific and honest voice. Avoid vague language (“this work explores the concept of humanity”) and art-speak jargon that doesn’t communicate anything real. The readers want to understand your thinking — not be impressed by formal-sounding prose.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Treating it as an afterthought. Many applicants invest heavily in their portfolio and then rush the Parsons Challenge. Admissions evaluators read both, and a strong portfolio paired with a weak Challenge is a significant missed opportunity.
Choosing the wrong source piece. Choosing a technically strong but conceptually thin piece gives you nowhere interesting to go. Pick something you genuinely care about and have more to say about.
Skipping the process documentation. The two additional process pieces are listed as optional but are strongly recommended. Submit them. They show how you work, not just what you produced.
Writing a generic essay. The 500 words should be specific to your piece, your process, and your actual thinking — not a general statement about art or creativity.
Submitting quickly. Give the Challenge dedicated time. It deserves at least as much attention as any single portfolio piece.
A Note for Korean Students
For Korean students whose art education has focused primarily on technical skill and portfolio production, the Parsons Challenge can feel unfamiliar — it explicitly asks for conceptual development and written reflection, which aren’t typically emphasized in Korean art preparation.
Start thinking about which portfolio piece you might choose well before the application deadline. Draft and redraft the 500-word essay — ideally with native English review — so that it reads clearly and communicates your thinking authentically. And budget at least two to three weeks of focused work for the Challenge, separate from your portfolio preparation timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Parsons Challenge required for all programs? Yes. All BFA, BBA, BS, and BA/BFA program applicants must complete the Parsons Challenge. It is not optional for any undergraduate program at Parsons School of Design.
Can I create the new visual work before submitting my portfolio? Yes — you can develop the Parsons Challenge work in parallel with your portfolio preparation. Just make sure you submit the portfolio first (or simultaneously), since the Challenge is based on a portfolio piece.
What media can I use for the Parsons Challenge? All forms of media are acceptable: drawing, painting, photography, video, sculpture, 3D work, collage, digital images, and mixed media. There are no restrictions on medium choice.
How long does the Parsons Challenge typically take to complete? Most students spend two to four weeks on the Parsons Challenge when approached thoughtfully — including time to develop the concept, make the visual work, document the process, and write and revise the essay. Do not attempt to complete it in one or two days.
Does the language of the essay have to be perfect English? The essay should be written in clear, readable English. It does not need to be literary — clarity and specificity matter far more than sophisticated vocabulary. Have a native English speaker review your draft if possible.
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