UMich at AnnArbor, UPenn LPS or UNC at Chapel Hill?

Hi, I’m a nontraditional community college student who will transfer to a 4 year college in Fall 2015. I have gotten offers from several universities, but I only consider three of them because of the financial aid offer. However, I don’t know which one I should choose. I would like to hear your advises. I will pursue a career as an actuary and also would like to go to graduate school after I finish my undergraduate study.

Those three schools that I am considering includes:

University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, School of Literature, Science & Art, major in Actuarial Math
University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences, College of Liberal and Professional Studies, Major in Mathematics
University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Major in Mathematical Decision Sciences

Because these three school offers enough financial aid to me, so i don’t know which one I should choose. Pleas advise. Thanks.

Any Actuarial Mathematics at Michigan but Pure Mathematics at Penn?

Regardless, Math at the undergraduate level is pretty standard across the best universities. You would be well served studying Mathematics at any of those three universities. Is one of those universities significantly cheaper or significantly more expensive than the other two?

Hi, Alexandre

BA in pure Mathematics at Penn and BS in Actuarial Math at Michigan. And the Financial aid offers from those three cover the same percentage of cost of attendance.

In that case, go with your gut!

I would not choose LPS at UPenn. It’s not the same as the College. I’m not sure how it works now, but, I know a few years ago, you weren’t guaranteed the opportunity to study at another UPenn college. As an older student, I would go with the one that has the most practical courses for your future career.

For reasons which aren’t clear to me, Michigan has had a legacy of moving people into senior positions at insurance companies. I don’t know if that was only true 20-30 years ago, or continues to this day, but there are a number of senior executives and senior portfolio managers that came out of Michigan’s actuarial program. Clearly, you should research the potential to harvest a benefit out of that network, but the network is there. Here is one example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Wilson There are others in comparable positions.