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A Name for My Major? 95

Posted by Cliff from the my-kingdom-for-a-nom dept.
kyala asks: "I am finishing up a seven-year BS in a degree program that I designed but can't come up with a name for. Going through my school's interdisciplinary studies department, I designed a degree that combines physics, botany, and computer programming. The degree is great and I love what I study. The only problem is that I need to come up with a title for it and am stumped. So, of course, I'm turning to slashdot for suggestions. Not only will you be repaid in karma, but I'll give royalties on any spontaneous donations made at commencement out of sheer delight at the name of my degree. Some details: I pretty much have carte blanche, so, besides unimaginative profanities, don't inhibit yourself. Of course, ideally, I'm going for accuracy. Barring that, obscurity will do. Some of the candidates so far: 'Techno-Botanical Inevitabilities', 'Quantum Astrobiology', 'Heuristic Ontologies', 'The Degree Formerly Known as Everything', 'Inevitable Prolificity'. One guy even suggested I forego words and try an interpretive dance."
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A Name for My Major? More

A Name for My Major?

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  • easy (Score:5, Funny)

    by jedwards ( 135260 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @12:43PM (#4393500) Homepage Journal
    Call it "physics, botany, and computer programming" and then everyone will understand what the hell you're on about.
    • Maybe my sarcasm filters are a little wacked, but I thought he was trying to ridicule the poster for trying to come up with a wacky name to impress people. It's pretty clear that the combinations of those three fields can lead you a lot of places that aren't completely clear without knowing more about just how they are being combined.

      Or maybe that is the point, no matter what you call it, your going to have to explain it. I say go for it, and choose the one that gets you the best milage in the direction your going. Any of the other suggestions are way more interesting and funny than this one. For some, this approach will be a turn-off, but you didn't want to work with them anyway.

      Good luck.

    • I agree, seriously. Call it what it the degree actually contains. Not doing so will give the impression that the degree is literally BS, the same trick that some people pull with their jobtitles to try and inflate their own importance. Just plain Physics, Botany, and Computer Programming is fine IMHO. It sounds totally cool, a mixture of universal workings, organics and technology, why go for more?

  • Here ya go: (Score:3, Funny)

    by Henry V .009 ( 518000 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @12:45PM (#4393508) Journal
    Medieval Basket Weaving with a minor in Underwater Plumbing.

  • I shoulda gotten a masters (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    seems appropriate.

  • Name (Score:4, Funny)

    by dcracauer ( 608611 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @12:48PM (#4393519)
    "I spent seven years on this B.S. and all I got was this stupid name"

  • I've got one! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by avalys ( 221114 )
    Kinetobotanical Programming and Algorithms.

  • Well (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @12:49PM (#4393525) Homepage Journal
    My friend is taking Biology/Computer Science and they call it Bioinformatics.

    By that standard you would be taking
    Botanophysicalinformatics

    I wonder if that's a word or not! It's 25 characters long!

  • One question. (Score:4, Funny)

    by avalys ( 221114 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @12:51PM (#4393532)
    I'd be extremely interested to hear how you managed to combine those three...

    Are you programming simulations of moving plants with highly detailed physics?

  • How About.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ckrause ( 42914 ) <chaim@chaim.com> on Saturday October 05, 2002 @12:52PM (#4393533) Homepage
    Buckyballs, Bonsais, and Bits
  • Applied Engineering Botany
  • My first thought was something on the lines of biocybernetics or cyberbotany, but I'm stumped to include or even understand the role of physics in your degree.

    What are some of the courses you've included in your degree? Is there a thread which ties these different subjects together in your mind? What project / seminar are you doing to complete your degree?

  • Way to go, Tommy boy! (Score:5, Funny)

    by one9nine ( 526521 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @01:04PM (#4393587) Journal
    "Hey, I graduated this year."

    "Yes, and just a shade under a decade. Alright."

    "Lots of people go to school for seven years."

    "Yeah, they're called doctors."
  • "Bob"

  • Computational Bioinformatics (Score:3)

    by dh003i ( 203189 ) <dh003i@gmail. c o m> on Saturday October 05, 2002 @01:19PM (#4393647) Homepage Journal
    Call it computational bioinformatics.
  • Quantum Cyberology?
    Biophysical Electronics?
    Physiological Bioeletronics?
    Cyberplants from Outer Space?

  • physics, botany, and computer programming (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cyclone66 ( 217347 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @01:22PM (#4393659) Homepage Journal
    so.. are you trying to design a new high tech hydroponic marijuana greenhouse?

  • A BS in BS (Score:2, Interesting)

    by madstork2000 ( 143169 )
    5 years ago I graduated with a very similiar unnamed BS degree. I was in the honors college, at my university and it encouraged individual exploration. I took advantage so that I could get out of school in 4 years, without ever having a real major. Hence when people ask what I graduated in I say a BS in BS.

    In reality I studied CS, Small Business Administration and a smattering of philosophy and political science.

    Basically, I couldn't make up my mind, but since I came up with a reasonable "plan" to present to my advisor, they ok'd it and I got through with minimum expense.

    -MS2k
  • a degree in Structural Agriquantums.

  • A name for your major. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by macdaddy357 ( 582412 ) <macdaddy357@hotmail.com> on Saturday October 05, 2002 @01:34PM (#4393716)
    Since you are studying several sciences that are not directly related, call your major Liberal Sciences.

  • if you really want a good name... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by pizza_milkshake ( 580452 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @01:40PM (#4393749)
    igf you really want to impress people with your weird degree, come up with a TLA for it, like "CPS" or "BCX". The kind of people that you're trying to impress will be embarassed that they don't know that the acronym stands for. If they do inquire, you can just make up whatever name sounds best for the position you're looking for.

  • You may have studied what you liked... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AtariDatacenter ( 31657 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @02:00PM (#4393822)
    ...and congratulations, but I really don't think you did yourself any favor in the marketplace, unless you're looking for a job that combines botany, physics, and computer programming. In fact, I'd have to wonder if the administrative department was on crack for letting you pursue such a trio as a single degree.

    That said, maybe you could twist it around a bit. Would they allow you to use one (or two combined) into a single major, and make the other a minor? You've probably got enough hours for a minor and a major, I'd think. Mine was pretty relevant, for example. A major in management information systems with a minor in Computer Science.

    Think about it. It sounds a lot better than what really happened, "I was going for a computer science degree, but I got messed up with 8 credit hours of a foreign language, and the higher math classes were taught by non-native English speaking interns who I couldn't understand, so I switched to Management Information Systems so I could get the hell out of there and work in the real world."

    Give that to Mr. Recruiter. He says, "Wow. He has a major in MIS, and on top of that, a minor in CS! This guy is a cut about those other candidates." Your degree is an advertisement of what you "are", so put the best face on it because it is what you are going to be using to sell yourself. What kind of job are you looking for (immedate, and long term), and how can you turn your studies into a "wow" instead of a... "what the hell"?

    If you can't do a major/minor split, I'd go with what the other guy said... Liberal Sciences sounds good. Or, you could combine two to make a Liberal Sciences major with another item as a minor.
    • I completely agree. You are going to KILL yourself in this ragged market with, basically, a triple major. You'll only be able to get a job with one of those degrees, and, because of the three degrees, your expected pay will be high, and someone else a little less overqualified will get the job.

      Did you even talk to a guidance councelor, or did you just do what ever the hell you wanted?

      Sorry to sound harsh, but you are shooting yourself for persuing all those majors in school. It would of been better to major in one (like CS), minor in another (like physics), and keep one as a hobby (botany). That would of helped you in your future endevours.

      Good luck on the job market... you'll need it...
      • Some people like school for the learning aspect, as opposed to the "how much money will I make later" aspect.

        Niche degrees like this may make you less marketable overall, but they can also uniquely qualify you for certain jobs above others.

        As another poster said, what about biker gangs who want to build new high-tech marijuana operations?
  • See the movie "Creator" [imdb.com] for background. Not the best movie ever made by any means, but it has its moments.
  • The subject of this post is H. Just H. One letter. H. Slashdot's lameness filter can go to hell.

    Anyone with the gumption to tackle these three subjects for seven years doesn't need to impress the average PHB to find himself a job. There's an entire world out there, operating underneath the conventional balance sheet radar, of people tackling the really hard problems that will be making people rich ten years from now.

    In "The Dynamics of Software Development" the author states, on hiring practices, that intelligence is the most important quality to hire, and that the salient feature of intelligence is individuation.

    I've dabbled in all these areas myself. In the derby for the most useless possible suggestion, my vote is "H", Shannon's measure of entropy for information bearing systems.

    • DWV (Score:3, Funny)

      by epine ( 68316 )

      Dry, wet, and vapour.

      • I thought about this again while carefully scraping away a week's worth of stubble from around a small crater at the corner of my mouth where an infected wisker is no more.

        First of all, you need to spend some quality time with the right caliber of inspiration. Start with this web site Edge [edge.org], then read some Marshall McLuhan, then some of those crazy deconstructionists and that nutbar Japanese guy who terminated history, Fukiwawa.

        If it were me, I'd be inclined toward something snide such as "Cyber Hermeneutics" or plainly evasive, such as "Neo Post Modernism".

    • Anyone with the gumption to tackle these three subjects for seven years doesn't need to impress the average PHB to find himself a job.

      I'm sorry, but anyone who spends 7 years on-campus as an undergraduate is nigh-on unemployable. At best it suggests chronic indecisiveness (further suggested by the 3 very difference subjects studied) and at worse, someone who spent 7 years partying on their family's money [imdb.com].

      You say "gumption" but he didn't push back the frontiers of knowledge in any of these three fields, nor take any personal or professional risks, just sat in lectures for 7 years. A candidate with "gumption" could have a BS and a PhD in that time - or less. In fact, in the UK, it is not unusual to spend just 3 years on each.

      The only thing I can suggest is trying to wrangle things to get a Bachelors and a Masters out of this, rather than 3 Bachelors'. Or become a career academic. As a sometime hirer, I probably wouldn't even bother inviting this candidate for an interview for the above reasons.

  • Major Name idea (Score:4, Funny)

    by dubiousmike ( 558126 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @03:23PM (#4394119) Homepage Journal
    I am finishing up a seven-year BS in a degree program

    How about "Professional Student"

    Just kidding. Good luck!

    :P

  • Physical Botanimatics. Fun to say at cocktail parties; imposing on a resume.
  • How about Computational Botanics?

    Or maybe . . . . Programmatic PhysioBotany?

    Or if you're feeling like a smart ass, GNU/Botany
  • sounds like more than one major
    and its name MUST reflect that.

    how similar is your degree to:
    bioinformatics
    dual cs-physics
    dual cs-botany
    dual physics-botany
    tri cs-physics-botany

    you probably qualify (or almost qualify) for one of these
    and i assume if you do not, then you are specialized
    in a specific aspect of the field
    (quantum physics, heuristics, astrobiology...)

    check similarities with other progams
    and come up with a hybrid-sounding name.
    and remember, dual degree programs are compromises, not complete inclusions;
    a dual cs/physics major has far fewer requirements than a double cs/physics major.

    if you spent seven years in classes
    (not counting retaken classes as in the poster:
    "college, the best seven years of your life!"),
    they you are probably also going to pursue
    masters' degrees, in which case your major's name
    will help only in applying for those masters' programs
    and afterwords won't really matter.
  • Physiobioinformatics
    Computational Botanophysics
    Botanical Compuphysics
    Physiocomputational Botany
    Botanophysical Computer Programming
    ?

  • The University is trying to sucker me into triple majoring in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Physics (only 176 hours!). Part of me wants to do this just so I can answer the question "What's your major?" with "mad science".

    The other part of me keeps saying, "This is a bad idea. People will actually believe you."

  • It's not as impressive as you seem to think (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Phaid ( 938 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @04:14PM (#4394271) Homepage
    If you "designed a degree" which combines these three fields, then you probably should have had some idea as to a common thread between these three disciplines that made the combination worthy of a degree. If, for example, you decided to focus your physics study on power generation, your botany on the way in which plants derive energy from light, and your software on embedded systems, you could say "I have a degree in Photosynthetic Computing."

    If, on the other hand, you just took a bunch of unrelated courses because you happen to like them, and talked your advisors into letting you combine them into a degree, then your inability to articulate that combination into a single phrase simply serves to explain exactly what you did. You BS'd your way into doing something you like, and now you have a degree in BS.

    So the question is, what is it that these three fields have in common that made you want to combine them into a degree? Therein lies the answer, or lack thereof.

    • Yes, how could WE possibly name YOUR degree? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @10:36PM (#4395413) Journal

      If you "designed a degree" which combines these three fields, then you probably should have had some idea as to a common thread between these three disciplines that made the combination worthy of a degree.

      Quite right and kudos to Phaid for making a serious response to the question at hand. The original question starts as follows:

      I am finishing up a seven-year BS in a degree program that I designed but can't come up with a name for. Going through my school's interdisciplinary studies department, I designed a degree that combines physics, botany, and computer programming. The degree is great and I love what I study. The only problem is that I need to come up with a title for it and am stumped. So, of course, I'm turning to slashdot for suggestions.

      So you turn to Slashdot? Jimminy Fucking Cricket, Man! First of all, if you're the one who "designed the degree" than you are really the best person to name it. Second, you certainly don't give us enough information to come up with a name for you. You spent 7 years studying all this and didn't come up with a name? The fact that you now want someone to "give you the answer" so you can copy it down on your diploma doesn't fill me with confidence that your degree is anything more than a triple major.

      If, on the other hand, you just took a bunch of unrelated courses because you happen to like them, and talked your advisors into letting you combine them into a degree, then your inability to articulate that combination into a single phrase simply serves to explain exactly what you did.

      I couldn't have said it better myself. But at the risk of being modded Troll or Flamebait, I wanted to state my opinion that if you are asking someone else to name the degree that you supposedly designed, then you really need to give some serious thought as to whether you truly understood what you did. And I'm not talking about if you understood the classwork: I'm talking about did you have any idea of what you were doing when you "designed" this degree?

      GMD

      • I think you're overdoing the criticism. He didn't say creative naming was a part of his major. All three are sciences, not arts. He's just wants a description that is accurate, sounds good, and will get him good jobs. Since /. has many smart, creative people, he's asking us before deciding. You're blowing this out of proportion.

  • It depends... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <revaaron AT hotmail DOT com> on Saturday October 05, 2002 @04:48PM (#4394390) Homepage
    It depends on what you're doing with these subjects, how you're integrating them. I'm double majoring in Biology and Computational Math (was doing CS, but I'd rather have a little more math and a little less hardware!) towards the end of doing grad work in mathematical and computational ecology, specifically in wetlands (or perhaps lakes). How to describe your studies depends on how you pull it together. :)


  • Usually, being a professional student isn't the kind of thing you run to brag about on Slashdot. There are always others who've been there, done that, and for longer.

  • Can't help unless you explain (Score:4, Interesting)

    by willis ( 84779 ) on Saturday October 05, 2002 @05:42PM (#4394583) Homepage
    Great. Combo major. Fantastic.

    Why don't you tell us what you studied/did your thesis paper on? Instead of having us try to figure out every possible thread that links the three, give us the thread and perhaps we can come up with a name for it.

    re: resumes
    You should probably quote the name of your thesis in your resume, and also have a brief "courses included" section that mentions the higher-level courses you feel particularly represent the different facets of your education.

  • I guess you can make overclocked beowolf clusters of plants, and calculate its gravitational field.

    My suggestion for a title: Agrophysic programmer
  • Pretty girl: So Mr. Spock, you never told me if you had a name for your degree...

    Spock: You couldn't pronounce it.
    • Offtopic?

      Moderators, if you were born with HALF A BRAIN STEM please refrain from moderating.

      Fucking cocksucking idiots... Picking the right item from a very short list isn't that difficult.
  • that you could have been just a year or two away from your Ph.D. in any one of those fields if you had focussed on just one ?

  • BS in Physics wih a minor in Computer Science or vice versa and a BS in Biology with an emphasis on Botony? It would have taken no longer to complete, would be clear on a resume, and would have qualified you three years sooner for post-collegiate employment. I mean honestly now, you didn't spend seven years working at StarBuck's did you?
  • Bananna anna bo bana etc.

    How about Bio-Physical Cybernautics?
  • I am assuming that the title has no intrinsic value to you, and is only useful on a CV to advertise what you "really" want to do (to people otherwise clueless of your talents/destiny) in life.

    It sounds like Bioinformatics/Physics is the most generic but descriptive to me (i.e. it will most widely connote what you did).

    If you want to emphasize computing, one of Computational Bioinformatics, Computational Physics and Biology, Computational Biology and Physics or Computational [mixed term for Bio and Phys] might be best.

    As an intrinsic name, it sounds to me like you majored in something close to Applied Structural Sciences, Natural and Artificial Sciences, Applied Formal Sciences, or Cybernetics; however, while these are denotative (at least to me), they all seem to fail to capture part of the essence. Perhaps a longer denotative name, such as Applied Structures in Physics, Biology and Computer Sciences is what you are looking for (substituting the aspect most interesting to youfor 'Structures' above).

    Perhaps it is obvious, but I am mentioning Structure and Form because it seems to me you are interested in the three most basic areas of science. In ancient times, you would simply have been called a Natural Philosopher (IIRC). 'Biology' and 'Physics' come from the Greek words for 'life' (Bios) and 'nature' (Physis), although we moderns translate the latter as 'mattter'. I am guessing that your interest in Computer Science is akin to being interested in structures in mathematics, forms which are also natural or objective and which have some a priori existence. (I am not advocating the name A Priori and A Posteriori Sciences!) Plato was a "realist" in the sense that he saw Forms as pre-existing structures in both matter and in fields like mathematics where mental apperception is needed. In other words, he didn't divide mind and nature the way we do. Perhaps this search for basic forms lies behind your interests as well??

    Of course, this is only my guess based on a very short description of what you did (using conventional words like Biology, Physics, etc). If you gave more detail, you might get some better suggestions. Without that, you're going to have to get lucky or perhaps you are just looking for a generic title.

  • ...you're designing computer-controlled hydroponic marijuana gardens, or something?

    Call it "420 studies".

    - A.P.
  • I've seen a lot of 'health informatics' degrees lately. Yours would just be a twist on that.
    • I've seen a lot of 'health informatics' degrees lately. Yours would just be a twist on that.

      No it wouldn't. Health/Bio Informatics is the study of the use of computation to analyze biological research. It's about algorithms and applications for simulation protein interactions or detecting trends in clinical trial data. It's a focused and integrated academic discipline, not a bunch of randomly assembled courses.
  • ...without knowing exactly what areas of physics, botany you are studying!

    How about infophytonics?

  • The Fibonacci Series (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jeko ( 179919 ) on Sunday October 06, 2002 @10:13AM (#4396777)
    Just use the one concept applicable to all three fields:

    The Fibonacci Series.

  • How about, the "Bluto Blutarsky 'Seven Years of College Down the Drain' Degree?"
  • Hell, sounds like you majored in Procrastination, with a minor in Indecision! Why not go to grad school and kill another decade?
    • someone better mod this to funny...

      I have to agree with the majority... you've taken classes in several different fields of study and trying to combine them all into a single degree title will just water down their real meanings. Try to split this into two degrees...

  • Um..

    Scientology!

    Warning: This already may be something else ;)

  • Computer BioPhysics
  • You could call it...

    ANFSCD (And Now For Something Completely Different)
    Multiple Sciences
    Unnamed Course 8C
    Botanical Physics with Computing
    Computational Physics with Botany
    Help! My pants are glued to this lecture theatre seat!
    Computing with Physics and Botany
    Does anyone remember what course I'm on?
    Drug Ring Management Studies
    PhyBot C.P.
    Interdisciplinary studies

    Or my personal favorite:

    BS in BS

    Just my $0.02,

    Michael
  • You may want to call yourself a "computational natural scientist", especially if you're competent with parallel or distributed code and other facets of HPC. However, you say "computer programming" and not "computer science", so my guess is that you don't have the necessary CS background to do computational science.

    However, it is unclear from your question why you spent seven years as an undergrad pursuing an ill-defined major (did you do it because you like botany, physics, and programming? was it just cool? or is there some thread that ties them together?). It is also unclear why it took you seven years to get what seems, from your description, to be basically a double major plus computer programming. You will probably want to focus your objectives before distilling how you spent seven years of your life into a major title, especially if you're hoping to impress grad school admissions committees or employers.

    In fact, you'd probably be better off emphasizing one or two aspects of your education when selling yourself. There may be jobs available that demand equal parts of physics, botany, and programming, but I would guess that there are more jobs that require physics and programming or that require botany and programming. Emphasizing all three will paint you as an overspecialized goofball.

    If, on the other hand, you're just pleased with yourself for graduating with what you think is an offbeat major, then do whatever you want. :-)
  • .
    I dunno,
    but I wasn't aware that you could get a degree by dropping aquariums off the top of the student dorm,
    counting the survivors, and
    posting the results on your personal web page.
  • Over the summer I was in a campground. There were lots of Canada Geese all over the place. Among them were lots of goslings. There was this one little engine-that-could gosling with a broken leg. "Jipeto," I called him. He was always trailing behind the rest, but his flock never left him behind. Then along came this car - a ghastly bright yellow pontiac sunfire. The car stopped and out got a couple of morons, a guy and a girl. Morons are easily identified by their moronic qualities, yeah? They begin to approach the young gosling, as if to pick it up. I yell, "Don't touch it!"
    "Why?" is the response I get.
    "If you touch it, you'll only be hurting it. There's nothing you can do for it."
    "It has a broken leg."
    "I'm well aware of that, but it's family is right there. They are caring for it - more than you have to offer. If you touch it, it will die. If you leave it, it _may_ die."
    At this point they got back into their car, the yellow pontiac sunfire, and drove closer to me. They stopped, and out stepped the fe-moron. She said, "I'm old enough to make my own decisions. I know what I'm doing. I'm a Vocational Agriculture major."
    I burst out laughing and said, "So you're a Occupational Hipnotherpist. How does that qualify you to work with wild animals. Especially given that any fool knows not to touch any wild animal, regardless of if you think you're doing the right thing?"

    The moral of the story: You have a Vocational Agriculture degree.
  • The old phrase goes "jack of all trades, master of none", but you can always go on and do a 'Masters of all trades' degree.
    Though I'm not so sure about what you would do after that... perhaps a 'Doctor of all Philosophy'?
  • I thought of it just as I submitted my previous post.

    You have just completed a degree in 'Natural Philosophy'! If you're not familiar with it, it was the term for science before it was called science. Back when people actually concieved of writing a compendium of all knowledge.

    Good luck.
  • BioPhysics-Informatics ... the combination of Botany (study of plant life) and Computer Programming sounds like good, old Bio-Informatics to me (I have some experience in that field). So, adding the Physics piece only seems natural ... BioPhysics-Informatics ... wow, I'd like a degree in that; although, 6 years for a bachelors ain't my style. I got my BS in Business Mgmt. (w/ minor in Linguistics) in 3 1/2 years with Summer school and an easy schedule from GMU; though, I do regret not doing a double-major which would have been 5 years. I also regret doing business mgmt. when I'm an IT professional now anyway. I wish I doubled in English and Computer Science.

    I'd like to make a recommendation to new college students though. If you have considered a minor, I highly recommend it as a way to use your mandatory, non-major electives. And I recommend Linguistics (usually taught through the English dept.) if you see programming in your future. Linguistics is a scientific study of language across all languages and includes grammer, phonetics, etc. I feel that those couple courses improved my ability to look at existing code and dissect it. If you have to take a foreign language in college, Linguistics will be a huge asset there as well, as many foreign language or English teachers going for their Masters are forced to take some Linguistics courses.

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