So You Want To Study Actuarial Science

If you had asked six-year-old me what I would be doing today, she would never have guessed in over 100,000 hours. I won’t go into the details of my entire journey to date. That would fill an entire book and need sequels.

This post is in response to high school students and people who know them asking questions like. “Should I study Actuarial Science?” or “Would you recommend someone to study Actuarial Science?” Far be it that I make that decision for anyone. Although my Bsc. in Actuarial Science and all I've learnt in between puts me in a position to answer some of the many questions. My biased opinions of course, so take them with a grain of salt.

The entire four years I was in university, someone would always step up to ask me, “So what exactly do you do?” I’ll confess that my first and most of my second years involved me trying to figure out the same thing.

I’d give them the answer from my first class-Introduction to Actuarial Science.

Actuarial Science is a discipline that applies mathematical and statistical methods to assess risk in insurance, finance and other industries and professions-Wikipedia

Okay, so that wasn’t the easiest of responses. The next several minutes would be me rambling on and emphasizing that there is a clear distinction between Actuarial Science and Finance.

At the end of my laborious explanation some would summarize everything I’d said with “Oh! So you guys are like accountants?”. To which I'd say, “No, we’re different. I know ‘a bit’ about accounting-I happen not to be a fan.” Then carry on with my day and hope I’d learn more in class to be better equipped to answer myself and the next person.

Disclaimer! If you do not love Maths and/or have no interest in Maths, do not waste your time applying for the course. Majority if not all you will do revolves around Math and Statistics-high level stuff. Most of these concepts are introduced over time so don't freak out.

If you pursue the course, do not format everything taught about a unit once done with it. You’ll meet it's siblings in later semesters in form of part II or III of the unit and units that borrow from it.

If it’s not clear by now, this implies that you will need to put in extra study hours. Go the extra mile. Math involves a lot of practice-cliché as it may sound. It’s the only way the concepts stick, make sense and evolve. You start even seeing things from a different angle. Of course, you could skip all this and take everything as taught-at face level. This strategy catches up with you when you need to apply something you learnt before.

They say college is the time to have all the fun in the world. If you are serious about becoming an Actuary, this is a luxury you’ll have to forego. You cannot be partying every week and expect to still be at par with the syllabus and be ready for all your papers. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to manage a dull lifeless schedule. You must plan your time well. Practice and study concepts taught.

You are not too cool for lectures

Most of those who enroll for the course consider themselves the créme de la créme. You cannot afford to leave your ego unchecked from the word go. Humble yourself, otherwise the course will humble you-and trust me, you want to opt for the former. If you've been a straight A student all your life, this’ll probably be the first time you understand how it feels to score ‘getting by’ grades. Do not despair. At the end of the day, ensure you pick all the fundamentals from the course. Why not rock while at it!

It is important to note that getting a degree in Actuarial Science does not make you an Actuary. To become an Actuary, you must get accreditation. The two main bodies where you can get accredited are:

• Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA)
• Society of Actuaries (SOA covers these specialties-Life Insurance, Retirement,Pensions, Group Insurance, Health Insurance)

If torn between the two consider Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and the Society of Actuaries (SOA) to solve your dilemma.

There also are:

• Casualty Actuarial Society ( CAS covers Property and Casualty Insurance. There is talks that CAS is remodeling their higher level credentials to resemble SOA)
• Actuarial Society of South Africa et cetera.

Most if not all involve a hybrid-university exam structure. As you select a body bear in mind factors like is their accreditation international? What’s their track record like? You’ll need to write +10 examinations-which means you don’t have to specialize right away.

Why an Actuarial Science degree? It makes you better equipped to prepare and sit for these examinations. Which need even longer hours of dedicated studying. The one thing I’d do if I had a do over is enroll for the exams right from my first year of school. For those getting started on an Actuarial Science degree, decide on which body to become a member of. Register for the exams and check off at least five papers by the time you are graduating.

If you don’t get the cut off points to study Actuarial Science, you can pursue a Math related course. For instance Statistics, Financial Engineering, Financial Economics, Finance or Physics. Then prepare for the examinations. Hence even persons with say an engineering background interested in becoming actuaries can sit for the exams and begin their journey to becoming Actuaries.

Remember, "If you have to ask so many times whether you should do something, you shouldn't do it."

Some of the skill sets you get from pursuing an Actuarial Career:

• Financial Mathematics
• Business Accounting
• Mathematical Statistics
• Predictive Model Building
• Life Calculations
• Advanced Statistics
• Economics
• Financial Economics
• Communication
• Professional Conduct
• Risk Analysis
• Business Awareness, et cetera

And Some examples of Actuaries include:

• Life Actuaries
• Health Actuaries
• General Actuaries
• Pension Actuaries
• Financial Actuaries
• Bank Actuaries
• Programming Actuaries
• Actuarial Consultants
• Gaming Actuaries
• Programming Actuaries
• Enterprise Risk Actuaries (CERAs)
• Actuaries in Academia
• Entrepreneurial Actuaries

The field is still new, so more and more opportunities open up. The role of Actuaries spans into more industries than the traditionally defined insurance.

My journey through the course was a roller coaster that I’d go through again. It not only opened my mind to so many other things, but also made me believe in the ‘impossible’. There are days when you feel like screaming-by all means scream, it’s therapeutic. Afterwards, you look around at your peers and smile because you know you will all keep doing your best to the end.

Work hard and smart.If your transcripts don’t look pretty and you don’t know the right people, it will take a miracle to break into the market. Especially if you come from my side of the world. And nowadays save for skill based careers, few people hammer in on the course you did. All they want to know is, “Are you a college graduate?”

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’d like to add that Actuarial Mathematics isn’t applied Math. It’s more theoretical but you still deal with the numbers. So if you’re worried some machine will take over your job, relax, that won’t happen in the foreseeable future. There is a lot of human judgement at play in building models and making projections. The computer more than needs you.

If you haven’t by now, reach out to a qualified actuary and talk to them about what it is they do. Feel free to ask me further questions. I’m happy to answer the ones in my capacity. And share this with any aspiring Actuarial Science students.

We can’t predict the future, but we do have one tool that lets us turn the unknown to our advantage-STATISTICS.

Originally published on Medium.