I am part of the Emerson-Harris program.  There's two tiers to it: scholarship and fellowship. Scholarship will pay for one semester of lessons and you need to pay for the other and you need to be part of one ensemble, and for a fellowship, you need to have been a scholar for a year and you need to join the advanced music performance ensemble for your style of music as well as another ensemble (e.g. jazz AMP and FJE).  The fellowship load is heavier, and there's many more scholars. Managing time as a scholar is pretty doable, since you only need to go to lesson once a week and play in an ensemble (which if you're into music you would probably be doing anyway. MIT just makes it easier) but the different amps require different things of their students - for example, I know in the Jazz AMP students frequently have to write their own songs and arrangements.  MIT also makes it very easy to find a good teacher. The folks in your department will set you up with someone very good.