<p>An interesting Web site St. John’s College has. </p>
<p>In high school I took a course where each student spent an entire quarter reading, understanding and critiquing ten books of our own choosing from a list of several dozen titles provided by the teacher. I believe that some of them are on St. John’s list.</p>
<p>Do you have any insight as to how its alumni do in the job market absent any grad or professional degrees?</p>
<p>@DTBTSE</p>
<p>“Would a degree in business or math be feasible if one were to take the actuarial courses along side, or would that be too difficult to manage?” </p>
<p>It’s difficult for me to answer that without knowing more about you. </p>
<p>In general, as a math major, you probably won’t have much trouble in actuarial courses. But if you’re just a business major, then you better have a really good quantitative foundation or else it would be very difficult to manage.</p>
<p>“An ActSci program sounds more like job-training than education.”</p>
<p>IMO, an act sci degree is a professional degree, not a science or liberal arts one. Thus, it makes the most sense to compare it to accounting, finance, and other business degrees, albeit it involves a lot more math.</p>
<p>@764764
“Stuff like real analysis, abstract algebra and linear algebra are compulsory. You also have to choose from a list that contains complex analysis, topology and PDE among other things.”</p>
<p>Interesting. That is certainly not the way act sci programs are in the US. What you describe sounds more like an actuarial concentration or minor. What country are you from if you don’t mind sharing?</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t mind learning those things; but if you ask any actuary, they will tell you that they have never had to use PDE’s, topology, abstract algebra, or complex analysis on the job or in exam questions, ever. (Although, we did take linear algebra, and it does come in handy on the upper exams.)</p>
<p>Similarly, my math major friends never took financial stochastic processes, life contingencies, or credibility theory. After all, that is why we are two different majors.</p>
<p>“Interesting. That is certainly not the way act sci programs are in the US. What you describe sounds more like an actuarial concentration or minor. What country are you from if you don’t mind sharing?”</p>
<p>That’s is how it’s structured in Jamaica as well as Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. All the VEEs get satisfied as well.
[Actuarial</a> science option | Department of Mathematics | The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica](<a href=“http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/actuarial-science-option]Actuarial”>http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/actuarial-science-option)
[BSc</a> courses | Department of Mathematics | The University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica](<a href=“http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/bsc-courses]BSc”>http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/bsc-courses)</p>
<p>They’re actually changing it somewhat
<a href=“http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/sites/default/files/mathematics/uploads/maths%20information%20phamplet.pdf[/url]”>http://myspot.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/sites/default/files/mathematics/uploads/maths%20information%20phamplet.pdf</a></p>
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<p>They put out a brochure: <a href=“http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/resources/career.pdf[/url]”>http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/resources/career.pdf</a></p>
<p>However, it does not seem to indicate pay levels or placement rates for jobs. It does say that 70% of their graduates do eventually go on to additional formal education.</p>
<p>More from its career center: [St</a>. John’s College | Administration | Annapolis | Career Services](<a href=“http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/admin/AN/career.shtml]St”>http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/admin/AN/career.shtml)</p>
<p>For comparison, here are career surveys from other schools. Note that many schools do not have career surveys at all for public access.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15518814[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-4.html#post15518814</a></p>
<p>After looking at the PDF, I am of the humble opinion that roughly 25% of alumni are what some would call “under-employed,” while the other 75% most likely succeeded due to graduate and professional education. The general rate for BA/BS “under-employment” seems to approach 50% especially in some majors. </p>
<p>The list of books contains about 100 titles read over what I would estimate to be about 144 weeks. This is a rate comparable to my high school book reading class, except that the college books are on average more esoteric and with more rigor in the analyses. However, during that quarter in high school I was also taking two sciences, one math, social studies and music.</p>
<p>I do suspect that the approach of a reading list and no specific major is valuable, at least in higher-tier colleges.</p>