<p>You might be interested to see the kinds of students actually in the Harvard/NEC joint program. Some of them were profiled by the Crimson back in 2009:
[Doing</a> Double Time | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/3/4/doing-double-time-charlie-albright-11/]Doing”>The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>According to this article, the joint program receives anywhere between 80-130 applications, and NEC only plans to accept 4-5 DD students in a given year. And to answer your original question, yes it happens every year–folks accepted to both places, but not to the joint program. </p>
<p>Another potential landmine: getting accepted to one school in a binding ED, accepted to the conservatory via the spring audition, not accepted into the joint program, and then the applicant has no choice but to attend the ED school. I know of this happening to one applicant to the Columbia/Juilliard program.</p>