Hi! I am considering applying as a transfer to FSU for the actuarial science major. Wondering if there are any current actuarial science majors that can talk about the major. Is it a good program? Do you like it? How are the classes and professors? I’m concerned about the computer science classes since I have no programming experience and also the higher level math classes. I took ap calc ab and bc and got two 5s but haven’t taken calc iii or linear algebra yet. I started linear algebra last year but withdrew due to personal issues and the difficulty. I am considering taking calc iii next semester along with an intro programming class. I’m also unclear on the pre-reqs for the major as a transfer? From what I’ve seen I think they are calc i-iii, sta2023, eco2013, eco2023, and a cop class?
Under the SOA website, FSU is listed as a UCAP–Advanced Curriculum (UCAP-AC) school, so by definition it must have courses required to prepare you for at least four SOA preliminary exams. You can look at the SOA Exam Curriculum and can see the syllabus and books, etc. needed to study for the exams (and then compare to courses in FSU’s AS major.)
Don’t worry about programming, my actuarial degrees (from GA State U.) only included one programming course which is all really needed aside from Excel, Word, etc. Pension actuarial firms have proprietary or third party forecasting software, so there is little programming from scratch (except the occasional spreadsheet.) You learn the software used by that consulting firm (and a lot of them lease a particular actuarial software so its the same from company to company.)