<p>I have four children between the ages of 15 and 19. My second oldest came to us in the fall of her sophomore year of high school asking if we would consider letting her go to Interlochen. She had a friend from local professional theatre who went there and he said it was amazing. My husband said, “No way!” at first but our D was persistent and did her research on the pros and cons of her going to Interlochen for her last two years of high school. She continued to take full advantage of all the opportunities we had locally, maintained excellent grades and stayed out of trouble. By Thanksgiving, we felt that she had earned the opportunity to go to campus for a visit and audition with the understanding that we still weren’t sure. I drove her 500 miles in a huge snow storm the first weekend of Feb. I still can’t believe we made it! I was blown away by the learning that went on there, both academically and artistically. She ended up doing her last two years of high school there as a theatre major. It was the best decision we could’ve made. She thrived at Interlochen. When college auditions roled around last year, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go the classical voice, straight acting, or MT route, so she auditioned for several schools in each area. She ended up getting into 14 programs, including Eastman, Oberlin, New England, Carnegie-Mellon, and Oklahoma City for Vocal Performance, Fordham for Acting, and Pace, Emerson, NYU-Steinhardt, Oklahoma City, U. of Miami(FL), and Webster for MT. The scholarship monies she received for academics and talent far outweighed what we spent in tuition at Interlochen and we have no doubt that her training at Interlochen is why she had such a successful audition process. Many of her Interlochen friends have similar stories. Yes, Interlochen is worth it! My D is now thriving in college and she says that Interlochen prepared her so well. My youngest D did the six-week MT summer intensive last year and will be going back this summer with the plan of doing her last two years of high school there. Hope this helps.</p>