Thanks for your input. I think I have a pretty good idea what a PhD entails (I've been doing basically full-time research at my school for 2 years now), and am going in because I want to learn more about the topic (and also end up doing IMO more interesting work than say purely software development).

I was asking because I heard about the idea of "target schools" and how academic pedigree matters in certain parts of finance (e.g., IB), and wonder if this also applies to more technical positions.

May I ask you what gave you the confidence to say you "would not have a problem getting a quant position"?