Edit: Original post was too lengthy and the question was a bit ambiguous so I have modified it to include just the key important components. Thanks Tom for directing me to the appropriate FAQs that address my question in detail, which I should have read in advance.

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Hello! I am a Junior at a large public university, and am one semester away from finishing my degree in Astrophysics. Over the last year I have taken a couple of programming classes and have developed a strong passion for programming. I am in a class right now on Computational Methods in the Physical Sciences, which focuses on all the techniques such as finite differences, linear algebra, RNGs, interpolation, integration, ODEs, PDE's, etc.

To my understanding these techniques are at the root behind modern Game Physics, and so I am interested in combining my programming skills with Physics/Math to possibly enter into that industry. I currently have no computer science background, but have figured out I can get the degree in two years from start to finish. That is because all the requirements outside of CS I have completed.

I can either get a Computer Science degree to supplement my Physics background, or I can get a Masters/PhD in Physics (focusing on computational physics and a topic that is especially relevant to games). I am curious as to which of these routes would be most beneficial for me pursuing Game Physics and the designing of large scale physics engines (with the assumption that if I don't get the CS degree I would do extensive reading on my own).

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read through this.

[color="#1C2837"]

I literally spent almost my entire high school free time devoted to MMORPGs - maintaining just enough time on my studies to get A's.[/quote]
[color="#1C2837"]Programming games as a full time job is very different from playing games.

[color="#1C2837"]SO - if I am interested in Game Physics, or any type of game programming for that matter - would completing a 5th year of undergrad to pick up a CSci degree be beneficial? What would my job prospects be, having this double major?[/quote]

[color="#1C2837"]Game physics is almost always very different from real life physics. While there are many small games that rely on physics for ragdoll and car simulations, they are the exception. In larger games there are many times where real physics engines can explode on you or cause extremely difficult to find bugs. Consequently they are often relegated to tasks like hardware-accelerated-physics particle systems and other eye candy that doesn't impact game play.

[color="#1C2837"]A game programmer will need a degree in computer science. It's a big stack of job applicants and most of them have the degree. If you don't, yours will be pruned very quickly.

[color="#1C2837"]A physics game middleware programmer would benefit from having degrees in both. Be aware that this is an extremely small field so you may not immediately land that job.

Thanks for the responses.

Tom, sorry I missed FAQ #65. I did look over the ones that I felt pertained to my topic before I asked the question, but I really should have read all of them.

I have been researching over the last couple weeks, and I did know that there is no clear-cut rule that "degree in X gets you Y." I was hoping however that by making this post, someone on these forums might have a personal story of switching careers that they would be willing to share. I've already read at least half a dozen similar stories to mine during my research. Most of them were from posts made years ago. I was just hoping on here I could communicate with someone directly about it.

Frob, thanks for explaining those distinctions to me. That will definitely help with this decision.

PLEASE don't delete old posts!! It obviates all the responses.

My apologies for completely erasing it initially. I had it saved in notepad, so I have put up a modified and condensed version of my original post that sticks to the point. I hope this modification complies with all the general expectations on these forums.