Couldn’t you express an interest in acceptable forms of micro-finance that help with development in Islamic countries?
How about Actuary if OP is interested in math/statistics?
It seems the life style of such a job may be acceptable to OP’s parent.
According to PayScale:
As of Jul 2015, the avg. pay for an Actuary is $24.54/hr or $80965 annually.
I do not know how to get into this career path though. But I think you are required to pass some not so easy tests. (The more challenging the tests are, and the more “tight control” the participants in this career have on the job market, it is usually better in terms of job security. The trouble in the law career path is that it is the law school as a business has more controls over the creation of the jobs, than the lawyers themselves have the control of the supply-and-demand.)
Isn’t it true that premeds nowadays need to take more courses? (e.g., new topics like sociology/behavior science/psychology may be on MCAT now.)
Yes, you’re definitely right about that.
@madamecrabster
No, she doesn’t.
@woogzmama
That’s not really what I want to do though, but maybe I can say that to him to convince him
@mcat2
Do I need to go to grad school to study actuarial science? It’s not offered as an undergrad major at NYU. Also, adorable cats
Good advice. I recently heard of a “complaint” like this: I am tired of keeping study and living without an income.
Does OP know that i-banking and consulting demand a very grueling working hours? (It sometimes also requires some good connections to break into this industry, as I heard.) I heard of a case: a very young person died because he had been working non-stop for 72 hours. Usually, this kind of job will wear a person out in a few years, and these companies usually expect that the majority of such employees will leave their companies and this industry in a couple of years due to burnout.
You do not need to go to graduate school for actuarial science and you even do not need to major in actuarial science for your undergrad. You need to take a number of economics and math courses, pass 1-2 initial tests and get an internship (preferable actuarial internship but other internships with insurance companies will do). Minor in Math is helpful.
On another topic - programmers and IT workers in general work remotely in great numbers. See if you can sell your dad on CS major with the assumption that you will find a job where you never have to go to the office (not a good idea for an entry-level employee, by the way).
OP,
Re: “actuarial science” and “grad school”?
As I posted, I do not know. In my guess though, mostly you need to pass a series of rigorous tests, but I do not know how to prepare for such a test.
I actually heard that almost all economics courses have a high demand on student’s applied math background (definitely at the level of multivariable calculus and linear algebra.) after the student has passed the economics 101 class. So it is no harm to have a strong background in applied math if you may major in economics. (One of DS’s professors actually advised their students to take at least one math class every semester in college if a STEM-related grad school will be in their plan.)
Yeah, I’m aware of this and I’m trying to build up my network. I also read about the case you’re talking about, a 20-something year old in the UK interning at an investment bank. I care about my income after I graduate, mainly because I need to get out of my parents’ lease as soon as possible, which is why I’m so stressed out about my career path/major, and it seems that finance or compsci are the most practical and useful to land a job straight out of school.
@CCDD14
I don’t want to live under his rules when I finish school. I DO want to go to an office, I DO want to work in the corporate world, and I DO want to work with interest. However, I don’t mind lying to convince him if that’s what it takes.
I think you meant leash, not lease. LOL.
Actuarial science is a career path that does not require grad school. While some colleges offer a major called “actuarial science,” many do not.
However, there is a series of professional exams (4) that must be passed before one can become an actuary, and it would be difficult to pass them without taking the requisite math (calc 1, 2, 3, linear algebra, differential equations), statistics (regression analysis, time series, etc), economics, and finance courses. It is recommended that 300 hours be devoted to studying for each preliminary exam (the P, MFE, MLC and FM exams) and, even then, the exams have a 40% pass rate.
In addition to the four preliminary exams, one must attain a B- or better in a series of college finance, economics and statistics classes to become an actuary (the “VEE” requirements).
Once you pass the four exams and complete the VEE requirements…to climb the ladder in the career you should continue to take as many additional exams as you can pass. The more you pass, the higher your earning power. The pass rates for these continuing exams gets lower and lower. So, while there is no grad school, there is an enormous amount of self study and discipline required to advance in this career.
I believe NYU has an actuary club. If you are interested, look into it.
Stern offers a concentration in actuarial science:
Also, to be clear, you don’t need to pass all four exams during college to get hired by an actuary firm…many will hire graduates with 1-2 exams and allow you (pay you even) to study for the remaining two preliminaries on their time. However, you do need to complete the VEE requirements…and to ultimately be an actuary you need to pass all four preliminaries (I assume if you keep failing after being hired, you would not be retained).
^ Very informative post.
I heard being in the medicine path also requires a lot of tests either during the education/training years (quite many years) and being in practice.
Actuarial career is practical too (although it seems consolidation of Insurance industry is starting out so who knows the how job market will look in 3 years). Check www.beanactuary.com for more info. note that at some point you will have to satisfy educational requirements so you curriculum should include the majority of the required courses.
http://www.beanactuary.com/study/?fa=vee-requirements
There are a lot of consolidation both on the healthcare provider side (i.e., hospitals) and the payer side (insurance company and the largest payer of all: government’s Medicare) So, the comment “who knows what the job market will be in the future” applies to medicine too.
An example: I heard the largest hospital system in CT had to close two of their clinics just because there are too many Medicare/Medicaid patients now. The more patients they see, the more money they lose. They need a higher percentage of non-Medicare/Medicaid patients to break even. The CT’s state government controls the purse string for Medicaid patients, I think. The tax payers are not willing or able to shell out more of their precious money for those patients who are either old or poor.
In the bay area in SV California, recently there was a big fight between a very large healthcare provider and a heath insurance company. The patients were told to see a very limited number of doctors for almost half a year before they finally reached an agreement (agreement for a year only – until next round of fight.) The landscape if the health insurance could be more and more like the gridlock between two political parties in the Congress in the future.
^mcat2 - If the avg pay for an actuary is $24.54 per hour, that is far from $80k a year - more like $51k.
Actuarial preparation does not require any specific undergraduate major, but substantial course work in statistics, math, economics, and finance is generally necessary. See http://www.beanactuary.com for more information.
Oy, I’d rather live with her dad than become an actuary…
OP: maybe it would help us if we understood what your dad thinks an acceptable job might look like. It’s tough to imagine anything outside “corporate” as even government jobs are like that.
Has he made any suggestions? I’m just wondering if all jobs are unacceptable and he hopes you “just marry”? That would be a tougher issue!
Applied math, actuarial science, Data analytics/Data science, CS, Economics, all provide good professional paths out of college.
You could major in something “practical” that will hep you find a job, and minor in Economics. Doesn’t CAS require 2 social science classes anyway, ie., Economics, Sociology, or Psychology? Since Sociology isnt for you, it means you have to take at least one Economics class because your college requires it, right? After that, just pick and choose classes you like. Majoring in something with an Econ minor is possible to achieve in 6 semesters. For finance, math/stats/Applied math (etc) majors are as useful as Finance. That could be a way for you to get to a Finance job without declaring a Finance major.
See the Career Center ASAP. Try to think of internships since the “best” NYC ones start to recruit in the Fall.
Note that your father’s belief was true about 50 years ago but for the past 20-25 years, such behavior as asking for sexual favors from female employees or even making crude sexual jokes is considered a firable offense (and in the case of asking for sexual favors, a crime punishable by law and one where the man’s word does NOT have more power than the woman’s, since it’s really considered beyond the pale to behave in such a manner.) In short, even if there are male employees or employers who may be tempted to behave like this, the consequences are such that it’s become extremely rare and no longer “par for the course”. MadMen 2015 it isn’t.
In keeping with TV shows, if your father thinks hospitals are better than the corporate world, then he clearly doesn’t watch Grey’ Anatomy. 
(just kidding - GA is NOT a documentary, it’s a soap!)