While the actuary track contains business courses, it’s a math major at my d’s school. In fact, most math majors at her school are in that track.
My D is/was in similar situation as the OP’s D, though had gotten farther along in HS math, up to Calc BC, 2nd yr statistics. She was mainly interested in LACs so that is where we focused our attention. Also as someone else posted, LACs outproduce science PhDs relative to their size. I posted some tables here. Keep in mind the relative size of the schools. UC Berk is 10-20 times bigger than most of the LACs
all schools: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19567189/#Comment_19567189
LACs: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19567186/#Comment_19567186
We were looking for LACs with strong/larger math programs (but also and STEM esp Chem/Physics/Environmental Sciences not so much lab bio sciences). Also looked at the faculty and looked at the fraction of women, but I don’t have that info anymore. When I could, I talked with people who had majored in math at LACs D was interested in. Some schools are known for their ‘big tent’ (yeah, that’s the term they use in math education circles) approach to undergrad math education that specifically tries to prevent students dropping out due to getting crushed as freshman.
These are the LAC’s we ended up looking at more seriously
***Really hard to get into and likely too ‘intense’ (given D’s strong desire to also devote a lot of time to performing arts). Generous need-based aid but no merit aid.
Williams * I have 2 friends who majored in math there and they commented that is very supportive and encouraging
Carleton
Reed
Amherst
Swarthmore * Didn’t tour that one
Harvey Mudd * D decided in the end that it would be too hard to double major in the arts here due to intensity
Pomana * Didn’t tour that one (no snow)
***More realistic places to get into (for D) and that would be less intense. D whittled her ‘more realistic’ list down to these two. D was looking for LACs in the northern climes.
St Olaf * Very well-known in undergrad math education circles for its math program. Good in performing arts and strong in study abroad. Big math faculty. This was D’s top choice after (impossible to get into and $$$) Williams
Whitman * Also well-known for their math and STEM programs.
*** And
Colorado College * Because they have a full-ride math scholarship (…which D did not get). Block system.
“My D likes math” - SInce you said she is liking Caculus, she may like engineering (problem solving, using math). If she adores proofs, then she may like math major (theoretical math). That can make it hard to do college planning/research. For now keep both options (as well as other majors) on the table.
@wis75
I cannot find the women/math break down anymore, but small LACs do prepare students well for later PhD studies in large universities while providing excellent liberal arts education.
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/50-schools-that-produce-the-most-science-and-engineering-phds/
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/?govDel=USNSF_178http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/?govDel=USNSF_178
If a high school student has already taken many college classes, done research, and knows for certain what topics to pursue in college, then a PhD granting university would be a better fit since the student could run out of STEM classes to take at a small LAC.
@QuantMech Although I have developed friendship/acquantances with scores of women colleagues and professionals, I have been either the only one or one of a handful at my schools and professional setting for 30 years. The ratio has been between 20:1 to 100:1. To me, it is what it is.
I agree that current generation of women may not like the gender imbalance at school and at work.
Do not let gender determine your D’s choices. Look at the availability of grad level math courses. Once she is in college she may choose a science or engineering or, as a math major, discover some fields that interest her most. Some U’s will have the advanced specialties with under 20 students while other schools may not be able to offer them. Larger departments will have those with many more obscure interests. btw- I wish I had saved the reference that was a 30,000some word article (there was a word count at the end with a congrats to those who read the whole thing) about a math major being good for computer science.
Remember that your D will evolve in her interests. She should have good options in several STEM fields at any school she chooses.
My daughter has always lovedlovedloved Math…since 5th grade she said she wanted to be a Math teacher.
We told her to major in Math (for maximum flexibility) and get a Master’s in teaching math…She went to SUNY Bing for undergraduate and then to Columbia for her Master’s.
A masters is not necessary to be an actuary, but don’t let that fool you. Studying and passing all the actuarial exams is waaay more difficult and time consuming than any masters degree.
Did you notice the intensity of the people saying “No to women’s schools! must have big research universities” Argh!!!
This for me is not what I want for my daughter. She would not like this group of people, and would not survive the curriculum because of the feeling behind it.
If you don’t survive that intense curriculum, who cares if it’s got a gazillion extra courses?
For my mathy daughter the most important thing is that she loves what she does. The rest will follow.
My preference is to find a smallish school that has a nice nurturing environment. I believe that my daughter would do well to find a mentor in her field. Does she like the professors as much as the subject? Does she like the others in her programs? For me, I would look at a variety of schools, but include Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount H, Agnes Scott, and Sweet Briar–which is working like crazy to attract and keep students. For Bryn M, Smith, and Mt. H they have consortiums to branch into as she evolves in her interests. For Agnes Scott (which also has an astrophysics program) she can take classes at several schools plus Emory. There may be great opportunity to find a mentor in a more intimate setting. One good mentor is golden for helping her understand the field and to place her in her first job of her future career, imo
I’m not going to say that @wis75 is wrong in arguing for large university math programs (and note that hardly any private universities meet her 100 math majors per class standard, even those with world-class math departments) and ignoring gender issues. Those are the choices I would make. But there really are more ways than one to skin a cat. One of my son’s closest friends from high school – second in her class, all-city in field hockey, winner of many public speaking competitions in which my son came in second – got a large scholarship to Smith, majored in math there, and loved it. She isn’t dumb or gullible; she isn’t remotely afraid to mix it up intellectually with guys. She also wasn’t going to go work on Wall St. no matter what. She wouldn’t have traded her experience at Smith for anything. (And . . . the University of Massachusetts had lots of advanced math she could take.)
One of my virtual nieces has what amounts to a professional mathematician’s job with a public agency. She went to Carleton, choosing it over some very strong competition. She will be beginning a math or computer science PhD program soon. Again, there were places she could have gone to learn a little more math than she did at Carleton, but her overall experience there was just what she wanted, and what she’s doing now is ultra-sophisticated and challenging.
Maybe an LAC in a consortium with a phd granting U in it re[presents the best of both worlds?
Amherst/Smith/Mt Holyoke/Hampshire with UMass or Barnard with Columbia, like that.
I do think some of the poster’s cautions are well-founded, per @comeonpeeps’ daughter’s experience. It is easy for HS students to think they are good at math by doing well at calculus or even multivariate calculus. But these subjects can be taught as functionally useful math as opposed to the kind of theorem/proof math that math majors do. One can be good at and enjoy the functionally useful math but find the theorem/proof kind of math difficult or uninteresting. If your D turns out not to love theorem/proof math, she might still like stats or engineering.
Becoming an actuary seems like an awfully specific thing to choose at age 17. [I did a postdoc who decided as a freshman in the depression to become an actuary because he was good at math and wanted to make a living. Well, he got out of that as fast as he could and got degrees in math/statistics I think. He became a very famous academic.
Incidentally, my son was an accidental math major at one of the high-end LACs listed above. He was studying econ and I suggested he take a math class every semester as econ PhD programs care more about your math prowess than your econ. Plus, he is dyslexic and math requires very little reading. And, I had a sense he would be really strong at it. [I have a PhD in an applied math field and my father has been described as a virtuoso mathematician among theoretical physicists.) He loved the school but found the math courses pretty easy (he didn’t read the books at all until real analysis). But, he is now in grad school in Computational and Mathematical Engineering at an outstanding program, I think. He finds the students there much stronger at math than his college math major compatriots. In hindsight, he might have liked more stimulation from his classmates.
What other interests does your daughter have? What else does she want to do,while in college? Play a club spot? Participate in music ensembles? Go to football games?
Yes…you need to consider academics, and your kid’s academic interests but don’t forget about the rest of her!
Great question @thumper1. She wants a school with a decent amount of student activities. Not interested in Greek though. She loves art. She’s danced her whole life - doesn’t plan to minor or major in dance but would love some dance opportunities on campus. Especially tap dance! 
She is also is interested in social justice and community service. And she loves Latin!
@clowncar, you pretty much described my niece. She’s a math major at Columbia. Dances, is active in a lot of student activities beyond dance, and she’s interested in social issues. (don’t know about the Latin).
Well, maybe my D should head to Columbia, @SlackerMomMD. If only it wasn’t so ccccccold.
@comeonpeeps, what kind of school did your daughter go to? Was it a LAC or a university? It sounds like you think it was the prep work in HS that caused her trouble in college, but do you think it could have had anything to do with the college itself and the type of instruction she got there? Do you think things could have worked out differently if she had chosen a different school?
My daughter is a sophomore in HS, and she breezes through her Math classes, but I worry about the same thing happening to her.
Did your daughter end up finishing the Math degree or did she switch into something else?
If my daughter does end up majoring in Math, I’d like to see her go to a school that’s not super competitive. I might give Whitman and St. Olaf a closer look after seeing the post by @liska21 above.
The final decision should be up to the person actually attending college (financial reasons aside). Whether they go to a large research university or a small LAC should be their decision.
@WalknOnEggShells, my daughter went to the University of Michigan. From this discussion, I do wonder if she wouldn’t have been better off if she had gone to a smaller LAC. Her math classes were made up of extremes of preparedness, so there were enough brilliant types who breezed through that instruction went at a fast pace. As @shawbridge mentioned, it was her first time seeing theorem/proof math and she found it to be very difficult. I do think that if she had been exposed to that kind of math early on, she wouldn’t have struggled so much. If she hasn’t done so already, I would suggest that your daughter take a look at the AMC series to get some familiarity with those types of problems.
My daughter ended up majoring in computer science with a minor in math. She’s proud to have eeked out that minor because it was rough going for most of it.
Good luck to your daughter. For all you know, she could be one of the brilliant ones who finds it to be a breeze.
One of my kids is an actuary, and so I know many actuaries.
Some colleges offer the major within their business school, some within the math department, some put it in the science department. Some don’t offer the major at all, but the career can be pursued from such colleges nevertheless by taking a minimum of calc 1, 2, 3, diff eq, linear algebra, and MANY statistics courses including regression analysis. Plus, there are “VEE” requirements for the career which require taking and passing (with a minimum C grade) certain economics courses and some other statistics and other courses as well that escape me at the moment.
It’s actually not a narrow career path at all because the course of study involves business principles, risk management, and the science of predicting, quantifying, pricing and advising on financial risk. These skills are prized in lots of different industries. The jobs are highly paid positions, even at the entry level.
The real barrier to the profession, as someone above noted, is the exams. They are grueling, and the pass rate is usually around 40% (meaning, 60% typically fail). Keep in mind that the exam takers are usually self-selected actuarial students who believe they are well-prepared, not just anybody off the street, so this pass rate is exceptionally low. Four or five exams are required at the outset of the career, and it is recommended that 300 study hours be committed per exam.
Then, more exams are required to progress in the profession (and they get successively harder to pass). Actuaries can keep attempting test passages throughout their careers. Those who pass 8, 9, 10+ are quite handsomely paid. Many never reach that level. I have never met an actuary that didn’t fail at least 1 exam in their career, and usually more than that, and have to restudy and retake them multiple times.
So, you can see that grad school is not necessary for actuaries, and it’s not even recommended. It is far more important to devote your spare hours to self-study and constant exam passage/progression.
For entry level jobs, employers like to see at least two exams passed by graduation. For this reason, if one is committed to an actuary career, it is highly desirable to attend a college with an actual actuarial program, as the VEE requirements are built into the curriculum, but more importantly there are courses devoted to exam passage as well. The typical LAC will not have actuary prep courses, which will require the student to do the 300 hours on her own time. Also, colleges with true actuarial sciences programs tend to draw the top actuarial recruiters and consulting companies.
However, it bears emphasizing that the profession CAN be pursued by any math/stats/Econ major (assuming VEE requirements were met) regardless of whether their college offered an actuarial major. I know a few who graduated first, took a year to study on their own, passed those first couple exams and are thriving actuaries.
Comeonpeople, where is yloumDD now?