<p>I have actually a few friends who are (were) at NEC who complained that NEC had TOO many liberal arts requirements! They were in at least one liberal arts course each of their 8 semesters.</p>
<p>I also have friends at Mannes and Peabody who say that their conservatories require their students to undertake plenty of liberal arts credits due to the nature of how their schools are connected to a larger university (New School and Johns Hopkins, respectively.)</p>
<p>Lastly, I also have friends that studied in London and in Paris who went through their entire undergraduate careers without ever taking a non-music discipline class. Perhaps, since classical music is an European artform, the European institutions have a tradition of requiring more time and attention spent on it from their students? Or perhaps, the American model of Higher Education is much more uniform and structured than anywhere else? Maybe a combination of both?</p>