What do you think of studying Acturial Studies?

[truewt]

Originally Posted by Sparks

IMO, I think the Actuarial field is still in its growth phase and has not yet matured in both research and academic. It is therefore not necessary to plunge into Actuarial Studies unless you are very sure that you will be sticking to this field for the long-term. To me, such studies do lead to a professional degree(aka narrowly-focused). If you are intending to consider this field as one of your potential career, it might be better to stick to traditional courses such as statistics or business.

It may be a very young field, but definitely a growing one. Hence, I would think that it would be great to enter this field early as the 'pioneers'

On a sidenote, a professional degree in Actuarial Sciences is actually TOO specialised IMHO, as you probably will want to go into actuary field upon graduation. What if you don't manage to find a job in this sector?

But NTU Business Administration programme with specialisation in Actuarial Science is not a professional degree? I'm actually considering to enter this field as my future career (I've yet begin my university education). But if we do get a more general degree, such as Mathematics (the one I'm intending to pursue), will I need to further my studies to get professional accreditation or whatsoever to be a Actuary?

What about Quantitative Finance degree in NUS? The career prospects for this degree states "risk management, financial analyst...", which are considered an Actuary's work, but not necessary belonging to only Actuaries?

[xingxian]

Actually I am going into this field also. There is actually a Bachelor of Commerce degree, specialized in actuarial studies in Australia, Univeristy of Melbourne.
I think this is better la since u will have the knowledge in business also.

I am planning on taking the Mathematics with statistics for finance, after my degree then only I write the professional tests by the Society of Actuary, is that good?

[questions]

Originally Posted by xingxian

Actually I am going into this field also. There is actually a Bachelor of Commerce degree, specialized in actuarial studies in Australia, Univeristy of Melbourne.
I think this is better la since u will have the knowledge in business also.

I am planning on taking the Mathematics with statistics for finance, after my degree then only I write the professional tests by the , is that good?

from what i read, that's usually the normal procedure. after getting a degree in actuarial science / maths / stats / other related field, they will take the professional exams.

for myself, i hope to get a degree in business with specialisation in actuarial science from NTU before taking the exams from the Institute of Actuary.

[iamme]

Studying an actuarial science degree allows for a huge chunk of exemption! It usually saves you 2-3 years of having to work and study at the same time in trying to attain the professional qualifications, depending on the undergraduate course being pursued. Currently only 4 Australian universities are offering that course and the one offered at NTU is in line with those (ie CTs of the English system and Part 1 of the Australian system)

To keep career options open you could do a general commerce/business course, but then again you can always switch from the actuarial course to a commerce course if you find it unsuitable for you, as many modules are likely to be similar.

That being said, there is a legitimate reason to be worried since the drop-out rates of actuarial science courses are very high...in general it's easily a 66%. That's pretty much in line with the passing rate of the professional exams which is only around 30%. So if you can't tackle the actuarial degree reasonably, you should start putting off the thought of becoming an actuary.

Anyway actuarial science has been around for more than 300 years so it's nothing new...

I'm doing an actuarial internship and I've been reading/talking/eating anything actuarial for the past 3 months so if anyone else has questions on the profession I'd be glad to answer them! =)

[ivanneo]

Hi,

so where r u doing your internship right now? I'm very interested in doing an actuarial degree but i do not have sufficient maths background and found it quite difficult to catch up without it. So i took commerce in the end.

[iamme]

Originally Posted by ivanneo

Hi,

so where r u doing your internship right now? I'm very interested in doing an actuarial degree but i do not have sufficient maths background and found it quite difficult to catch up without it. So i took commerce in the end.

I think that one of the key factors to determine success in an actuarial career would be a strong interest/aptitude for maths. As a reference, the UK board requires candidates to have achieved at least a B grade in A-level Maths before they're allowed to sit for the professional papers.

I'm doing reinsurance. At which university are you doing your degree? Are you going to specialise in anything? It's true that many people do not study actuarial science in university but pursue the career after they graduate. Many of them have maths-related degrees though.

[lemonade]

Hi,

I'm seriously considering a career as an actuary. I'd be heading to NUS, and am pondering whether to take math or stats as my major. Which major would be the most relevant for my actuarial exams preparation?

Also, are actuarial qualifications obtained in say, the US, recognized in Australia and the UK?

I assume that most actuaries in Singapore sit for the UK/Aussie exams rather than the US ones.. am I right?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[iamme]

Actuarial science is a lot of stats. A maths degree would be highly relevant as well, especially if you do more stats modules! I'd still suggest choosing based on your interests though. I'm not sure about market demand for either degree in other careers but if you want a safety net then maybe you might want to take that into consideration as well.

It's 3 different systems but the international association's been proposing to streamline the different exams so we might see that coming up in a few years' time... At the moment, yes the qualifications are recognised elsewhere but depending on individual countries, you might have to do a few conversion exams.

Hmmm I'm not so sure about your assumption...what makes you say that?

[lemonade]

Originally Posted by iamme

Actuarial science is a lot of stats. A maths degree would be highly relevant as well, especially if you do more stats modules! I'd still suggest choosing based on your interests though. I'm not sure about market demand for either degree in other careers but if you want a safety net then maybe you might want to take that into consideration as well.

I'm definitely leaning towards stats, just that I was wondering whether math courses such as mathematical/numerical/complex analysis and ODEs would be of help for the exams. From what I understand, these courses aren't exactly relevant, are they?

Originally Posted by iamme

It's 3 different systems but the international association's been proposing to streamline the different exams so we might see that coming up in a few years' time... At the moment, yes the qualifications are recognised elsewhere but depending on individual countries, you might have to do a few conversion exams.

Thanks for your info!

Originally Posted by iamme

Hmmm I'm not so sure about your assumption...what makes you say that?

Well, I gather that NTU actuarial students would most likely sit for the UK/Aussie exams since they are already exempted from the 8 core papers, lol.

[iamme]

The mathematical/numerical/complex analysis and ODEs or other stats modules would not be what they're only looking for. It's more of an application of those onto specific issues. That's why actuarial science is a discipline on its own and not called maths/stats. An understanding/good grasp of those concepts would be beneficial to your exams and career though. Anyway from what I know, integration and differentiation seem to be used a lot in actuarial science, if you need any of the past exam papers for reference you could pm me!

I guess most NTU students would follow the UK system since they're on that to begin with. And ummm... do take note that they aren't automatically exempted from the 8 core papers by completing their degree. Aside from the 2/3 who drop out, only the brightest amongst the remaining 1/3 would be able to get full exemptions while at school. The rest might get half exemptions from the 8 or maybe only 1 or 2.

Hmmm but ya you may be right that most students follow UK/aussie over here, the US CAS is known to set the most difficult papers to be found in the discipline.

On a side note, why're you choosing NUS and not NTU? Seems like you haven't chosen your major, does the maths department allow that?