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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

#111

Post by GW150914 »

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…

Or maybe if you become a vet it’s because you love animals, and killing them day in, day out takes a massive toll.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#114

Post by tfehring »

sizzle wrote: post #102
tfehring wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

At least at my company, the vast majority of bullets 1 and 2 is automated already. Financial information is calculated and fed to the financial statements automatically every reporting period, all of the recurring analysis supporting those results is generated with one button click, etc. The manual parts of 1 and 2 are centered around ad-hoc analysis when results aren't as expected, updating our automated systems when we add new products or product features, refining and adding granularity to those calculations as needed, etc.

But actuaries' main value-adds are (1) building and pricing new products and product features and (2) helping management understand the financial results and their business implications. If you're just re-pricing a commodity product like term life or home/auto insurance, a lot of the pricing can be (and is) automated. But that's where companies have started building out more complex ML-based pricing, and actuaries are heavily involved in building and steering that functionality and explaining the results.

If you can come up with a compelling way to automate a significant portion of that work while still providing results that insurers' CFOs and Chief Actuaries will sign off on, sign me up. But in general, if you're looking for automation opportunities in insurance, there's far more low-hanging fruit on the operations side than in actuarial. Same goes for finance and accounting, though to a lesser extent than operations.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#115

Post by c0nducktr »

creaghpatr wrote: post #45
harshreality wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

correlation or causation? I could easily imagine that more depressed people pursue veterinary jobs because being around animals makes them less depressed.

I imagine vets have to frequently put animals down and have those talks with the owners, I could see that being a huge buzzkill

Especially if they owners simply can't afford to pay to keep the animal alive.

Imagine being a surgeon and telling someone that their child needs their appendix removed, and the parent sees the cost and says "eh, let's just put them down".

Vets have to deal with that all the time.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#116

Post by intended »

microcolonel wrote: post #44
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…

> That said of all the actuaries I went to school with, none liked their jobs and all eventually moved on to do something else. Part of that, from my perspective, involves the slow pace imposed by overbroad regulations on the applications of actuarial science. I personally think that a diverse market of specialized insurance products would be an immense moral good, but in the established jurisdictions where demand fo…

Yep, that’s what the product is. Reliable defensiveness. So making it more fun, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s what the customer is buying.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#117

Post by intended »

vostok wrote: post #65
rm999 wrote: post #5

Full dataset is here: https://www.scribd.com/document/388081338/BANKRATE-Most-Valu... For those of you who are wondering, Computer Engineering is 14th, "Mathematics and Computer Science" is 23rd and Computer Science is 30th. If I had to guess, CS has a wider income distribution than many of the higher ranking degrees, which are dominated by engineering degrees (many of which have lower unemployment rates too). The no…

I'm very surprised that economics and finance are higher than computer science. I would have expected that corporate finance jobs would have brought the average below that of CS.

Finance people in IB/PE would be pulling it up. It’s impressive that programming is that high.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#118

Post by burntrelish1273 »

sanxiyn wrote: post #103
TylerE wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Tomatoes, parmesan cheese, escargot, sushi ... coding. True that.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#119

Post by vostok »

intended wrote: post #117
vostok wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very surprised that economics and finance are higher than computer science. I would have expected that corporate finance jobs would have brought the average below that of CS.

Finance people in IB/PE would be pulling it up. It’s impressive that programming is that high.

Having worked in trading (not IB, but the recruiting process is similar) - it's useful to know that relatively few people get into IB and fewer stay in IB or go on to MF PE.

Corporate jobs pay significantly less and make up a much greater portion of the jobs. IB is a low headcount industry.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#120

Post by thaumasiotes »

pkaye wrote: post #13
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.

I also heard vet school is pretty expensive.

Causality can't run from vet school being expensive to veterinary practices being profitable. It can only go the other way - profitable practices lead to school being expensive.
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