Jerry Rasmussen, I also missed this thread first time round. Yippee, another geologist !

Your humble servant is a BSc (Hons) in Mining Geology, from University College, Cardiff. (That's in Britain, NOT England). I used it in one short contract in South Africa, had another offered but the company crashed before I got there.

I have always wanted to ask; if I went for a Masters degree in this subject, would I graduate "Magma cum Laude" ?

(Groan)

I went back to see the University about ten years ago(actually, I went to see Wales play France at Cardiff Arms Park, but thought I'd look up the old alma mater), and found that the Mining Department, with its emphasis on the coal from the South Wales valleys, had been replaced by the Environmental Studies Department. The current crop of undergrads were mostly girls from the Home Counties who objected to digging holes in the landscape on grounds of cruelty, and who looked at me as if I had horns on my helmet.