Thanks for your input, OB. It's nice to know on some level I'm not an isolated incident. Right after posting, I went back for another round of looking at alternative degrees. I like the sound of this approach much more, and probably going to tackle the problem from this angle. I really appreciate it.Then I started taking classes I found kinda interesting and forced the University to find a degree that fit my credits.
After going in for an appointment, it sounds as though I may well be able to graduate faster as an IDS (meaning I'm nearly done, with credits that I care about which actually count in the major like my 4 physics classes) and I'll be able to peacefully transition into Physical Sciences/Computational Sciences Areas of Study (similar to a slash from New College, my brothers' alma mater - see Joint AoC at bottom of page) with a built in History minor. Thanks for bringing this back into my scope of awareness. Scheduling another appointment to make a formal switch. Hawt-diggity-dog!