Why don't more people consider acturial science?

College Majors Business Major
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<p>I see a lot of people hopping onto the investment banking bus but not many for actuary positions. Why is that? Seems to me that the cliche perception of actuaries are geeks with no social life but I have met and heard about many who seem perfectly normal and happy and very good business people as well. The pay rate is good and increases quite well as you progress. The hardest part would be having a love for the math and the actual passing of all the exam stages during the course of 8-10 years, but there are so many options available to an actuary and he/she can easily move around into finance, operations, etc and often attain managerial roles. I personally am not pursuing ibanking and might choose to take a few exams as an undergrad first to decide whether I should pursue this field(or take up jobs in finance/consulting after graduation, is that possible?). Can somebody give me the goods and bads of being an actuary and starting early? Compared to investment banking and other competitive finance/business careers, being an actuary isnt that bad and it actually seems to have a huge business component as well so I am wondering why it is not brought up often. Thanks</p>

<p>BTW, can any current and experienced actuaries give an example of how they fit the exams into their professional careers after graduation? Does it require the same time commitment as say, going to med school, law school, graduate studies, etc? I have heard they are very hard but the independent study portion is appealing and I have also heard of employers providing assistance to preparation as well.</p>

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<p>Anyone that enjoys testing for homoscedasticity is not normal.</p>

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<p>I considered it, but it's kind of weirdish. WAAAAAAy too many tests to get to the top, there are like 9 different ones/</p>

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<p>The prereqs for that major are just ridiculous (at least at my school)</p>

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<p>actuarial science is "off on their own" as a biz major, words straight from an advisor haha.</p>

<p>their curriculum is a lot of math and the tests would suck. if you're fine with that there's definitely a solid, steady niche though</p>

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<p>i heard that there's a cult...</p>

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<p>many peopel didn't choose it because it's hard. then, the majority of the jobs come from insurance companies. so go figure.</p>

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<p>to me, actuarial science is extremely boring and doesnt take me anywhere close to where i would like to end up in the business world. about anything in the insurance field does not interest me at all and the same probably goes for many others.</p>

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<p>it's called number crunching :)</p>

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<p>Because most people don't want to be in school for the eight years it requires to have a decent career in science.</p>

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<p>you don't need 8 years of schooling. You merely need the VEE req, enough math know how and patience to study for the difficult exams</p>

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<p>I'm not familiar with the acturial science major; I'm referring to science majors in general.</p>

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<p>If you are not familiar, why would you randomly comment</p>

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<p>Umm, maybe because acturial science is a science major and I was talking about science majors???</p>

<p>Open your eyes next time.</p>

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<p>the exams are tough. the first exam is calculus based probability. i didn't have a class in it while in college but i got A/A/A+ on my calculus sequence at WashU. the actuarial exam, however, makes my calculus exams at WashU look easy. there are only 2000+ Fellows (those who passed all exams) in the entire US (i.e. on average, less than one alum per college ended up as a Fellow..lol); that should tell you how hard they are. i know a guy that just passed the last exam and he's about 40 yo (i saw him studying very often at the coffee shop last year). he majored in math at Yale! the 8-10 years the OP cited is for <em>those who passed all the exams</em>. a lot of people try over and over and <em>never</em> pass all of them. i am going to take the first one in feb and it's gonna be a challenge to study after 9-10 hr workday as an engineer. :( </p>

<p>if you are pretty good at math, i think it's possible to pass provided you have the discipline for rigorous study. but you really need to have the aptitude. if you don't have 700 on SAT math and aren't comfortable with calculus, it's probably not for you.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Umm, maybe because acturial science is a science major and I was talking about science majors???</p>

<p>Open your eyes next time.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It's actually more of a finance/math major; blending probability, statistics, and behaviorial science. It's as much of a science as behaviorial science is, I guess. Though I would call it risk management.</p>

<p>Your lack of familiarity with the subject shows.</p>

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<p>Family friend of mine graduated from Penn State with a degree in Actuarial Science and cant find a job. He did fine in college as well.</p>

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<p>Actuarial science has nothing to do with college. It has to do with the Exams. It's like a Bar exam. If you got a 4.0 in College, got a 179 on LSAT and Flew through law school but failed your bar exam....good luck finding a job.</p>

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<p>Maybe he didn't pass any exam yet. I know a guy who's now a senior at Temple and majoring in actuarial science with a 3.80 GPA. He didn't pass the first exam. Temple is supposed to have one of the better programs in that field. I asked why he didn't pass, he said something like "I don't know; it was hard. I thought I did well in classes". They don't care if you went to Ivies or XYZ state but they need you to pass at least 1 exam, if not 2, before hiring you.</p>

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<p>Temple has the best. That's weird though.</p>