<p>Neil Donohoe (the program director) addressed this issue for the Freshman parents on Orientation weekend. He said, similar to what BreatheEasy stated, that it is a way to weed out those who are not serious about this path, or those who really aren’t BFA material. It’s difficult, when auditioning students, to see work ethic and how a person will progress. A person can be fantastic at auditioning, yet not really follow through afterwards, if you know what I mean…He specifically mentioned that if all the students were up to par, they would all stay in the program. There is not a fixed number that they try to whittle a class down to. This year’s Freshman class is bigger than any they’ve had before. They have added groups for the lower level classes. He said if they all choose to stay and all pass the juries, then they will add as many upper level classes as they need to keep the groups small. Also, you are not immediately cut after the first attempt at juries. You would be warned and have one semester to work your tail off and give it another shot the end of the following semester.</p>