Can a CS PhD minor help me eventually or is it unnecessary?

[jisraeli]

Hi everyone,

I'm a Biophysics PhD student, Quant work looks interesting, and it seems that PhD's in Stats/CS/Physics/EE are the standard degree expectations. Biophysics could seem somewhat vague in terms of the knowledge/skills it represents. I'd like to think that the actual research we do (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home) should speak for itself without a CS PhD minor, but I'd be willing to do it if it could help clarify my skills/education. Does the research speak for itself in Quant applications and do you think a CS PhD minor could help in my case? Thanks!

 

[Andy Nguyen]

If you can demonstrate your computational skills at interviews, you should do well. You should be able to talk about the size of the database you analyze, how many lines of code you wrote, what analytical tools you use, etc.
That's a lot better than just trying to get a CS minor for the sake of having it.

People can get really good technical skills these days without having to enroll in any formal degree.