<p>so yesterday i got my acceptance letter from one of the very top public universities and i'm pretty happy about that. however, the letter was from the engineering department and they told me i was admitted to the engineering program there too.</p>
<p>i've asked around and people say this is a pretty rare occurrence. is this true? do people normally not get into a specific program from the beginning?</p>
<p>clearing up my confusion here would be appreciated. :)</p>
<p>Yep, this is true.</p>
<p>At a lot of universities you have to specify the major program you are interested in. This is particularly common for admission to Engineering programs because they often have requirements that are different from the requirements in other departments.</p>
<p>It is perfectly normal to get letters like the one you received IF you applied to a specific program or stated a specific intended major in your application. In your case I expect you did say you were interested in Engineering. Now if your letter says Engineering but you indicated interest in Romance Languages, it would be a truly peculiar situation!</p>