NYU Tisch Special Programs Online High School Screenwriters Workshop

Lessons are pre-recorded lectures that Tisch releases each week on the Smashcut platform, where the whole course takes place, and you watch them at your own pace. You upload your work to Smashcut by the deadlines in your syllabus, and the instructor, teaching assistants and classmates respond to it on that schedule. Live sessions with the instructor and classmates are scheduled during the term, at a meeting time you get to choose, and in these workshop sessions you present your writing for critique and rewrites. There are also film story analysis sessions with screenings of important work.

Caterina Colzi, a 2020 participant interviewed by Tisch, described video meetings once or twice a week of about two hours of work and lecture, plus weekly assignments built around videos to watch.

Tisch names two instructors for the screenwriters workshop, Scott Bankert and John Warren, and says its high school courses are taught by Tisch undergraduate faculty. Teaching assistants also work with students alongside the instructor. Tisch doesn't publish a class size, so it's worth asking at an info session if that matters to you.

You earn 4 college credits from NYU for the course, listed as SPEC-UT 201, with a letter grade. If you later enroll at NYU as an undergraduate, the credits count toward your degree automatically, but the grade is also factored into your NYU GPA. Any other college applies its own transfer policy, so whether the credits count there is up to that college once you're admitted.

Grades are posted by September, but transcripts aren't sent automatically, so you'll need to request one from the NYU Registrar if you want proof of the credit.

You need to be a current high school student, from freshman to senior year, with at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA on an unweighted 4.0 scale. If English isn't your native language you'll also need English proficiency results, unless you've completed three or more consecutive full-time years at a school where English was the only language of instruction. Homeschooled applicants have the parent in charge of their schooling email a record of coursework instead, and students with non-English transcripts upload the official transcript plus an official English translation. You'll also need your own desktop or laptop with a webcam, microphone and audio, and the Chrome browser.

The application asks for three written answers of up to 250 words each, plus any program-specific prompts, a creative résumé covering your training, awards, projects, community service and work, and a PDF transcript showing every semester of high school. Tisch strongly recommends against using AI tools for any of it. It doesn't publish an acceptance rate or cohort size.

Summer 2027 tuition is $8,368, and the application carries a $75 fee that isn't refunded, so a family paying full price spends $8,443 in total. You confirm a place with a $1,500 deposit, which counts toward tuition but can't be refunded or transferred, and the balance is due through NYU's eSuite system before the course starts. NYU's Bursar payment plans and payment extensions don't apply to this workshop.

If you drop no later than four days after classes begin, you get back everything except the deposit. Tisch has a limited number of need-based scholarships, applied for separately once your admissions application is in, and families who can't manage the $75 fee can ask for a waiver by emailing an explanation of financial hardship.

Applications go through Tisch's SlideRoom portal.

1. 1

   Gather your transcript, creative résumé and three written answers, and check you meet the GPA and English requirements.

2. 2

   Submit the application with every required field, the NYU Tisch Supplemental Profile Form and the application fee by 1 June 2027 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

3. 3

   If you need financial help, complete the scholarship application Tisch emails you once your admissions application is complete, by 4 June 2027 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

4. 4

   Decisions are emailed on 8 June 2027 to the address you applied with.

5. 5

   If you're admitted, pay the deposit by 21 June 2027 at 11:59 p.m. ET, or your place is withdrawn.

6. 6

   Before the course starts on 12 July 2027, pay the balance and submit the NYU Program Forms, which need both your signature and a parent's.