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Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

bloomberg.com

21–30 of 198 posts

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#21

Underlying study: https://www.bankrate.com/career/most-valuable-college-majors...

Actual breakdown of all the majors they found

https://www.scribd.com/document/388081338/BANKRATE-Most-Valu...

Amazingly enough, Bankrate.com uploaded it to... scribd.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#22
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?

Most likely. I'd say half or more of the biochem and neuroscience students at my school were pre-med, and the rest planned to start a PhD. There's also good (and potentially lucrative) jobs in sales for someone with that background.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#23

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.

How long did it take you to complete the exams? I think I read a lot of actuaries actually finish them while on the job

Think it's possible to self study the exams? Not a likely path for me, but interested in seeing if anyone has done that

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#24
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.

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)."

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#25

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.

Don't forget their inevitable spreadsheet errors.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#26
I had a friend from college who became an actuary (he was a business major in college). It sounds like, once you finish the first several actuarial exams, you are pretty much set. You don't even need a degree in actuarial science, but it probably makes the exams easier.

His job was pretty easy, and since he knew some basic programming, was able to build some Excel macros and wow the people he worked with. The work sounded less exciting than being a programmer working at a startup, but pays well and he has lived in Bermuda and London.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#27
post #23

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.

How long did it take you to complete the exams? I think I read a lot of actuaries actually finish them while on the job Think it's possible to self study the exams? Not a likely path for me, but interested in seeing if anyone has done that

Self-study is entirely possible. I worked through about half of the P1 material as a way to strengthen my probability/stats background. It's a lot of hours of work to be able to pass it if you don't have good knowledge of it already though.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#28
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, this is extremely misleading. You can download the data set and do the analysis for yourself. I have--the average income for science majors (biology & chemistry) with BS only is more like $55k as I recall.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#29

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.

Bingo. They've been saying this about actuarial science for a very long time. But they fail to mention that (1) there aren't that many positions available, (2) for students smart enough to qualify for the positions (passing the CAS etc) you are far better off going into finance or economics as an undergraduate, and (3) most importantly, actuarial science sets you up for a very specialized and narrow career path.

Re: Actuarial science ranked as most valuable college major

#30

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)."

correlation or causation?

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

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