I had a molecular biology research background before switching to bioinformatics via a Masters degree some time ago. The degree involved subjects that teach to

I had a molecular biology research background before switching to bioinformatics via a Masters degree some time ago. The degree involved subjects that teach tools, and other subjects that teach programming fundamentals (with the undergrad CS and engineering students). By far the most helpful for me were the software engineering subjects. I could immediately see where I could apply pretty much everything I was learning each day to a biological problem I was trying to solve. Learning individual tools was trivial in comparison, and with programming fundamentals I could wrangle large datasets and thus string tools together into workflows and pipelines. What was beneficial for me may not of course be broadly applicable, and I suspect different students will appreciate different approaches.