Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major • Hacker News Board

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#11

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:21 PM UTC

hnaccy wrote: post #8

What are all the zoologists doing?

[deleted]

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#12

Post by stochastastic » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:26 PM UTC

As an actuary I don’t think I would recommend it for most people. At the very least, keep your options open by getting a math or CS degree and passing a couple of exams on the side. I feel like this really glosses over the weight of the credentialling process. It also doesn’t appear to talk about the oversupply of entry level applicants.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#13

Post by pkaye » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:28 PM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #10

dv_dt wrote: post #7

I think I'm most surprised that zoology is ranked second. Wondering how common an occupation that could possibly be?

It's the number one undergrad degree for veterinarians. Private vet practices in upscale areas are insanely profitable.

I also heard vet school is pretty expensive.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#14

Post by robertAngst » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:29 PM UTC

>Actuarial science majors earn an average annual salary of $108,658

Uh, so where is engineering here? 115k/yr

I have the ability to engineer solutions to problems, not saying an Actuarial Science student cant build things or root cause issues- but there is a thought-process.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#15

Post by s0rce » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:29 PM UTC

The average income for biochemists and molecular biologists is >$100k? Is this heavily skewed by doctors who did biology as a pre-med degree?

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#16

Post by pkaye » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:31 PM UTC

rubatuga wrote: post #2

Where’s computer science?

There is no longer any science in computers. Going forward everything is going to be involving some combinations of Javascript, distributed systems and machine learning.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#17

Post by bytematic » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:33 PM UTC

rubatuga wrote: post #2

Where’s computer science?

applied mathematics perhaps? That's what it used to be called in my area back in the 90's

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#18

Post by user1324345 » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:33 PM UTC

these metrics are always pure garbage. Someone comes up with an equation like:

(start salary) + (median salary) + .5 * (job availablilty) + .75 * (growth) ... etc

then they rank everything, tweek it, make an article.

The scary part is people will read this and parrot this information for potentially years, "did you know actuary is the best job???"

This is actually how misinformation spreads.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#19

Post by secabeen » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:34 PM UTC

stochastastic wrote: post #12

As an actuary I don’t think I would recommend it for most people. At the very least, keep your options open by getting a math or CS degree and passing a couple of exams on the side. I feel like this really glosses over the weight of the credentialling process. It also doesn’t appear to talk about the oversupply of entry level applicants.

Interesting. Do you have any articles about the oversupply of entry-level actuaries? Actuarial science was a career path I considered, but I ended up in systems/network/devops instead.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#20

Post by opportune » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 11:34 PM UTC

s0rce wrote: post #15

The average income for biochemists and molecular biologists is >$100k? Is this heavily skewed by doctors who did biology as a pre-med degree?

Yes they are rolling people with advanced degrees into their respective undergrad