I’m currently finishing up my senior year of high school and have gotten accepted into a fairly respectable university. I’m interested in actuarial science (good job prospects, good pay, actually use math), but I’m curious about two things.
Reading through the threads here, it’s clear that you have to be good at math. Exceptionally good. But, how good is good? If I, say, dedicate 2 hours a day to just studying math, would that be enough? Do I need to be talented in math by default?
Also, the University I’m going to doesn’t offer an AS major, so would going into math or statistics be a wiser choice?
Anything you’d recommend for electives. Supposedly a little programming would be helpful and supplement math classes could go a far way, but is there anything obscure that’d come in handy?
Some universities have courses (in subjects like probability and financial math) that are expressly intended to prepare students for actuarial exams. The VEE requirement categories are Economics, Corporate Finance, and Applied Statistical Methods. If you click “Search VEE Directory” [url=<a href=“https://www.soa.org/Education/Exam-Req/Instructions-for-VEE-Directory.aspx%5Dhere%5B/url”>https://www.soa.org/Education/Exam-Req/Instructions-for-VEE-Directory.aspx]here[/url], you can see which courses count at your school. If you want to take these classes at your school (there are alternate options if you don’t), you’ll also need to take their prerequisites if they have any.
It’s a good idea to think about the specific college you’re attending and the city where you want to work in the future, if you have any preferences. I’m a freshman math major, and I’ve noticed that there aren’t many actuarial jobs in my area (if online job listings are any indication of anything) and my school doesn’t seem to have good connections with companies that hire actuaries. I’m still hoping to take actuarial exams and prepare for the career in general, but I’m also looking into math-related fields that are more in demand where I live.
I’ve taken an introductory programming course for computer science majors, and I’m currently taking data structures. I think it’s good to take programming courses, partially because they give you more options in general and partially because you’ll probably like them (at least a little) if you like math. My ability to write proofs has often helped me with programming, and my (limited) knowledge of programming has helped me with MATLAB-based assignments in my applied math classes.
I passed 3 actuarial exams but didn’t go into that field for various reasons.
You need to be good enough at math and good enough academically in general to pass their exams.
They are looking for people with business and communications skills, and not the typical geeks in math, programming, or engineering. The exams are challenging, but the work is generally somewhat dull and not stressful.
In terms of math, you should take statistics, numerical analysis or numerical methods, operations research, and financial mathematics.