<p>Thanks for all your rapid replies. They responded to me very quickly. While the “faculty program” is all the things described on their website, as you pointed out, it is evidently also used as a way to admit students who are interested in performance but who may need another year to develop before being admitted to the performance program. It is also competitive and based on the audition results, and as you point out, the program for the first year is largely the same. So it’s clearly both an opportunity and a risk, given that transfer into the performance program is not assured. Thoughts?</p>