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Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

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Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#101

Post by sizzle »

mrep wrote: post #86
amigocontigo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder I was able to more than double my starting salary (ending at around 135k with bonus) 3 years out of school. I worked in consulting and thought the work was incredibly boring. The main issue is that a lot of people in the field, even those good at passing exams, aren…

>> If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder > I was able to more than double my starting salary (ending at around 135k with bonus) 3 years out of school. Have you considered software engineering because current pay starts at around 150k in big tech and I'm now making 215k 2.5 years out of college? I say this…

What kind of systems are you working on that require math and physics? Aviation? Rockets?

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#102

Post by sizzle »

tfehring wrote: post #75
dv_dt wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do actuaries do from day to day? Are they old-school original data scientists, or something else?

The day-to-day is basically a combination of: * Moving data around - mostly using Excel + SQL, though R is growing in popularity * Using that data to calculate figures that are significant to the business - including premiums, IRRs, profit margins, and the value of future claims * Presenting the results of those calculations to management and recommending a course of action I'm not sure what "old-school original data…

How is this not automated by some type of QuickBooks/Intuit type bookkeeping plug and chug numbers software? Startup opportunity?

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#103

Post by sanxiyn »

TylerE wrote: post #90
psandersen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Data science is pretty fun and quite well paid. I enjoy my work a lot and manage a good work life balance.

There are certainly outliers (I'd argue that programming in general qualifies) but they also tend to be in things that - while I won't say you can't learn them - are things that a certain subset of people are just sort of naturally wired for.

I'd say programming is an acquired taste.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#104

Post by p33p »

eyeball wrote: post #78
p33p wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be really impressed if someone with an actuarial science degree has any experience with machine learning. That is not a skill that is taught outside of self learning or an absolute need. It may be more applicable in a property casualty company where there are things like telematics.

The society of actuaries is now testing basic analytics and R programming as part of the exam system. The Introduction to statistical learning book is on the exam syllabus.

You are correct, and I view it as an attempt to remain relevant in an area they feel threatened by. We will see what the exam ends up being like, but I have little faith in the SOA being able successful test someone’s experience in “predictive analytics” with a five hour proctored exam.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#105

Post by ylem »

s0rce wrote: post #67
dekhn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

long ago when I was considering majors (1991) molecular biologists made $70K. This makes sense to me- a scientist at a major pharma is going to make over $100K if they are an expert in their field and have 5-10 years experience ($100K in the bay area is a starting salary for many software engineers). Mol Bio has several job outcomes- the worst is lab tech, which alone in the bay area can be $60K, the best is CEO/Foun…

Most numbers I've seen put the average salary for a biology professor around $95k, $150 would be on the higher end.

Could it be a question of 9 month salary? If you have a couple of grants, you can pay yourself a summer salary. It's a strange system

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#106

Post by 50 »

fnayr wrote: post #48
randomstring wrote: post #32

Having done my BS in Match and CS at a school with a parallel Actuarial program, I got a good look at what being an actuary is about. If you're good at math, and really good at standardized math exams you can advance through the various levels and work your way up the pay-scale ladder. I think this really appeals to people who are good at math, but maybe don't want to go into academia. That said of all the actuaries…

Anecdotally, I just came back from New Zealand and was staying at a farm house rented out on Airbnb. The owner was previously an actuary in Sydney, and hated his job so switched mid career to farmer. Pretty large change.

That's pretty cool! Manual labor, personally, is appealing after a week of desk work in front of a computer - the sun, the frequent breeze, sweating, etc. It's one of the reasons I added philosophy as another major I'm pursing along with computer science - makes think about something other than computers and it gets me off the computer, even if it's for a tad bit.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#107

Post by eigenvector »

grouseway wrote: post #24
aphextron wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And for some it is a very stressful job. They have a very high suicide rate: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/ "The rate of suicide in the veterinary profession has been pegged as close to twice that of the dental profession, more than twice that of the medical profession (2), and 4 times the rate in the general population (3)."

Unlike doctors, vets euthanize animals every day. They're comfortable with the idea of a medically induced death. Ask any vet if euthanizing animals makes them uncomfortable and they'll tell you it doesn't bother them at all because they know they are ending the animal's suffering humanely.

On top of that, they have access to lethal drugs and know precisely how to use them, how to end their life quickly and painlessly.

Those two together make it very easy for me to see how a vet would rationalize suicide.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#108

Post by p33p »

azhenley wrote: post #79

Are there any software engineering projects for undergrad CS students that will get them exposure to actuarial science? I know very, very little about actuarial science, but I think helping my students learn about it could really benefit them.

They would be better off getting exposure to anything and everything related to finance, statistics, and operations research. Actuarial science specific topics include pricing and reserving of insurance products. I would love to see more CS students with an understanding of finance and time value of money.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#110

Post by [deleted] »

eigenvector wrote: post #107
grouseway wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And for some it is a very stressful job. They have a very high suicide rate: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/ "The rate of suicide in the veterinary profession has been pegged as close to twice that of the dental profession, more than twice that of the medical profession (2), and 4 times the rate in the general population (3)."

Unlike doctors, vets euthanize animals every day. They're comfortable with the idea of a medically induced death. Ask any vet if euthanizing animals makes them uncomfortable and they'll tell you it doesn't bother them at all because they know they are ending the animal's suffering humanely. On top of that, they have access to lethal drugs and know precisely how to use them, how to end their life quickly and painlessl…

[deleted]
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