<p>It was a requirement for my (former) major to take this one specific class your first year, and since it only had 20 some people enrolled in it and a lot of the projects required you to use the library/rent electronics from Willard/etc., I suppose that the department saw it as equivalent to a FYS (since the whole purpose of a FYS is to get you acclimated to campus resources in a small class). When I changed my major sophomore year and my new advisor saw that I was missing a FYS on my degree audit, she said it was no big deal and just gave me the form to fill out. </p>
<p>So, long story short, my first major's department considered one of their first-year courses to be equivalent to a FYS, and when I changed majors, the new department just said, "okay, whatever" and went with it.</p>