anyone knows which college is renowned for this? both public and private schools? <em>hopeful</em> <em>isn’t sure if there’s such a major</em>
<p>One of my friends is majoring in it at NYU (New York). I believe not many schools offer it as an undergraduate major.</p>
<p>There are actually 86 schools that offer it. Go to <a href="http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/servlet/advsearchservlet?buttonPressed=next&navigateTo=5%5B/url%5D">http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/servlet/advsearchservlet?buttonPressed=next&navigateTo=5</a> and type in Actuarial Science as the keywords, then click "See Results" at the bottom to view the list.</p>
<p>i typed that in and i got 1261 matches! help!</p>
<p>Try sorting the list by descending SAT math score.</p>
<p>what's actuarial science?</p>
<p>Always that first question before the others. In its simplified form, an actuary is someone who gathers usually numerical data concerning past experience, puts it together, analyzes it, and makes projections of future events; in other words they are evaluating "risk" by projecting a probable future based on past experience. About half of all actuaries are employed by insurance companies. They do such things as gather data on rates and ages of death so the companies can determine life insurance premiums for different age groups. Actuaries are actually used in a number of businesses including investment and marketing businesses (and you will even find some in the gambling business in Las Vegas). It is heavily computer oriented and the college major consists of mastery in math, statistics, computers, and business oriented courses like insurance and finance. Getting a college degree is only the beginning because most actuaries strive to become "Fellows" in either the Society of Actuaries or the Casualty Actuarial Society, because that professional status usually means higher pay. To get to that status you have to take a series of 8 very difficult exams and most of those are completed during several years after you graduate college. There are not many actuaries in the US (probably about 20,000) and there is usually high demand for college graduates. </p>
<p>The Society of Actuaries provides lists of colleges with actuarial programs and divides them into undergraduate "advanced" and undergraduate "introductory" with the former having fuller programs than the latter: <a href="http://www.soa.org/ccm/content/?categoryID=1260076%5B/url%5D">http://www.soa.org/ccm/content/?categoryID=1260076</a></p>