My S was admitted to both in mid-Feb. as well as Carnegie Mellon’s 6 week summer program. He decided Interlochen was more selective and accepted the seven week offer there, although he knows that for college CMU is perhaps the most selective in the country for MT. If anyone has any recent insights or experience with Interlochen summer MT, please let me know your impressions. We believe a summer at Interlochen will grow and hone his acting, singing and dancing. He’s currently a sophomore in high school.
My son very much enjoyed his 3 summers at Interlochen, and I am sure that the training he received was helpful as he successfully pursued BFA Acting programs last year. I would highly recommend it. I think it is just a great summer experience. I would highly recommend reserving a cabin on campus for a week and making a vacation out of it. The Rep and MT shows are generally a week apart. Get there early enough to see the Rep show, too. There is a ton of stuff to do in that part of Michigan. We stayed on campus twice and really enjoyed it.
Thank you for the suggestion about staying on campus. We just dropped him off yesterday for the summer!
@Daddio67 I’m sure your son will have a great time at Interlochen.
Isn’t CMU just for rising seniors? Their program is focused on being a college-level experience for students and helping them prepare for college auditions in the fall. Unless there is a newer program for younger kids?
@alwaysamom I believe a rising junior can attend the CMU summer program.
PS…I looked it up to verify my statement and here is what the pre-college program at CMU states:
Right, @soozievt about age requirements. Overall, CMU appears to focus on giving summer students a sense of what it will be like to be a MT major at a top college. @alwaysamom we chose the one week intensive at Interlochen for audition prep. Since our son is a rising junior, he has plenty of time to work on his singing/dancing/acting material now. I think the capstone experience of the six week MT at CMU is styled in the college audition format, although most of the six weeks is rigorous training, not audition prep.
Yes, rigorous training and an experience similar to that of a BFA program. My point about audition prep reflected that focus rather than shows, not that it was solely audition prep. 
I have known several rising juniors who have done CMU’s summer program and enjoyed it a great deal.