<p>Leaving aside all the difficulties common to all such programs, Tufts/NEC has two characteristics which make it particularly daunting.
First, Tufts and NEC are fully separate institutions. That is to say, Eastman is a division (a rather autonomous one, but still) of U of Roch., and Peabody is a division of JHU.
Second, Tufts and NEC are farther apart from each other than Eastman and Peabody are from the main campuses of their universities. It’s probably about 6 miles between the two.</p>