I did a little more research on Tisch scholarships and wanted to clean up some of what I wrote earlier in this thread. The “Tisch Scholarship Guide” that I provided a link for in post 28 will take you to a guide designed to teach you were to look elsewhere outside of Tisch for scholarships. Classic. An actual listing of Tisch scholarships you can find on page 234 of the Tisch School of the Arts Bulletin the link to which is here: http://students.tisch.nyu.edu/page/home.html
But the fun doesn’t stop there. This is just a list, not a description of what the scholarships are awarded for. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a document that spells out what each one is for anywhere on the Tisch website, you have to look them up individually. I started to do that but I got bored. Suffice it to say that many of them relate to film, not drama.
Miraculously there is one that actually has drama in the name so let me elaborate on that one. That is the Alec Baldwin Drama Scholarship. By it’s description, “the Alec Baldwin Drama Scholarship Fund will provide financial support for students who, in addition to talent, exhibit an unwavering work ethic, leadership skills, a willingness to collaborate, and an ability to tolerate risk and work with constructive criticism. Special consideration will be given to students who are high performing/high need.” The description goes on to mention that “A portion of his gift will support the Talent Identification Process, the Tisch School’s initiative to find the most academically and artistically talented students regardless of their financial aid needs.”
So I guess one could interpret “regardless of their financial aid needs” to also mean regardless of if your EFC decides you are wealthy enough and have no need but my guess is that may not exactly be what they intend. The Talent Identification Process (TIP) referenced in that description is a comprehensive outreach program that quote: is committed to making it possible for students of exceptional artistic merit to attend one of the premier arts schools in the country, regardless of financial circumstance. You can find information about TIP and also the Dean’s Scholars Program here: http://about.tisch.nyu.edu/object/tip.html
One more personal nugget to close out my participation in this subject. Earlier this spring when I first heard (courtesy of it being mentioned in CC) that there apparently was such thing as non-need non-need merit aid at Tisch, I told my daughter to make an appointment with the financial aid office and “get in there and plead your case for merit” for help with the upcoming senior year. So she did and the nice folks at financial aid directed her meritorious butt to a form she could fill out which largely asked for proof of additional financial need due to things that were not reflected on the FAFSA. Anyway again this is just a sample of one but as a result, I still believe there must be a secret handshake that has to be figured out in order to tap into non-need merit aid at Tisch. Fortunately this tuition weary parent only has one full time and one part time semester left to pay for so I can almost say I don’t care any more and the 1980’s kitchen with the cabinet doors that are falling off that I’m still cooking in might be retro cool by graduation anyway. At least I have a kitchen and am grateful for that. I will be happy for any of you that have a different experience with non-need scholarships at Tisch than we did but no offense, I sure hope my annual fund phone-a-ton donations don’t pay for it. 
All the best!