OK CC parental hive mind, question for you:
Is there any benefit to getting a minor in physics, for a CS major (in an engineering program)?
DS seems to have a flair for, and a genuine interest, in physics. On the other hand, it is work and takes some brain energy.
Is it worth it? What could you do with physics and CS, especially if you weren’t going for PhD or something academic like that?
I have a friend whose son did a minor in physics just because he enjoyed it. He is working at a financial institution now. 
Physics is hard. As my engineer step dad said, it separates men from the boys 
Having it as a minor on your resume shows prospective employers and grad schools that the applicant is versatile, intellectual and hard working. All good things. I don’t see a downside to minoring in physics if the student actually enjoys the subject – so long as the required work doesn’t affect his CS GPA… which may be used as a requirement/weed-out factor for future jobs/grad school.
To add to the previous comment. There is a possibility that – even if physics is hard – your son will be turned on to physics or some related subjects if he has very good teachers. When I was advising my children, I told them to go for it. Try things in college, keep open to learning. At age 17 you probably don’t know what you’re truly good at, or would like to spend your life doing.
In my mind, students should only get a minor if there is an area they want to explore outside of his/her major. I don’t think any hiring decisions will be made because a person has or doesn’t have a minor. Let your S go to college, take a physics class or two and see how it goes. Even if he doesn’t get the minor he can make a line to list disciplines where he has taken related coursework on his resume. No reason to decide now.
FWIW my D’s minor was more or less accidental – she took a few courses she loved in a particular discipline and then saw that she was one class away from having a minor. The Department head (it was a small LAC) encouraged her to get the minor – so she declared the minor the end of her junior year and finished it off with a class senior year that she wanted to take anyway. And FWIW, the minor was in an area that she never anticipated pursuing but found that she really enjoyed.
My son did CS at Carnegie Mellon where he was required to have a minor. (Their theory is that CS is largely a science that you can apply to a variety of fields.) My kid minored in physics, because he liked physics, but as far as I know it neither helped nor hurt him. (He works on the kernel at Google now.)
Except for perhaps a few niche jobs (e.g. writing software for physics researchers), a physics minor is unlikely to affect computing job prospects (yes, some games may need to model realistic physics behavior, but the intro level physics for engineering majors should be sufficient for that).
Of course, it can certainly be fine to fill his free elective space with physics courses if he is interested in them.
College is an education as well as a job skills place. No reason to NOT minor in it if it interests your son. Son’s school did (my day eons ago) and does only comprehensive majors. Knowing the basic theory behind things makes them more understandable and often easier to learn. There is a reason physics is required for many science/engineering fields. It is NOT hard for those with an aptitude and interest. Kudos to your son. Adding theory to his more “practical” major adds flexibility to his thinking. Exercising one’s brain is a good thing.