The job of an actuary has consistently been ranked by the Wall Street Journal’s Jobs Rated Almanac as the number one or two job in the United States. So what’s an actuary? Actuaries use mathematical skills to define, analyze, and solve business problems involving the cost of possible future events. [See What actuaries do for an elementary article that illustrates this by using business ideas and mathematical tools to examine how much money a person needs for retirement.]
Actuaries are employed by such organizations as insurance companies, financial institutions, consulting firms, industrial corporations, government agencies, universities, accounting firms, and labor unions. Actuarial work includes: projecting how a seat-belt law will change insurance claims; investigating how life-insurance reserves and future premiums might balance future claims; estimating the benefit costs of a labor contract; analyzing investment risks; projecting financial costs of the AIDS epidemic; and so on.
Professional societies of actuaries administer a series of examinations for persons wishing to qualify as an Associate or a Fellow as proof of their status as an actuary; many students complete two to four of the current Associateship exams while in college (one to three of the exams in the new system starting in 2000---"Y2K exams" described in the material Professional exams and the UT program), although a strong program should prepare a student for four or five current exams (three Y2K exams). Any student possessing strong mathematical problem-solving skills and an interest in a business career should consider the actuarial profession. Recent UT-Austin actuarial students that have passed three or four current Associateship exams have found actuarial jobs with starting annual salaries of about $45,000 upon graduation (probably three Y2K exams).
Actuarial studies at UT-Austin has a long and distinguished history of producing well-prepared students, many of whom have become leaders of the actuarial profession. Present Director and principal teacher in the program, housed in the Mathematics Department, is Dr. James W. Daniel (an Associate of the Society of Actuaries), the Paul V. Montgomery Centennial Memorial Professor of Actuarial Mathematics. News and information on the actuarial program is published each Spring semester in the Risky Business newsletter on the program .
MAJORS. Actuarial Studies is a concentration rather than an independent major, and is one of only about 50 programs in the United States described by the Society of Actuaries as a full actuarial program--- thus providing a thorough preparation for entering an actuarial career. Besides calculus, matrix algebra, probability, and statistics, eleven hours of Mathematics Department actuarial courses plus three hours of Actuarial Foundations courses taught by the Mathematics Department anchor the actuarial program; students completing those courses can compete well for actuarial jobs. An additional Mathematics actuarial course, computer programming, three Economics courses, and three Business courses compose the remainder of the concentration's core. Because the program requires so much mathematics, many students choose to major in Mathematics. Alternatively, students can take these courses as electives and major in any other area. Finance, Accounting, Business Honors, Management Information Systems, and the Risk Management concentration are naturals in Business, for instance. Actuarial employers have hired students from the actuarial program that majored in such diverse fields as Computer Science, Psychology, Electrical Engineering, German, Music, and Art History. Students should seek advice from the Undergraduate Adviser of any field in which they are considering majoring as well as from Professor Daniel. No matter in what field students major, they must meet the requirements of that major in addition to the recommendations for the actuarial concentration.
STUDENTS. Although there is no graduate actuarial degree, about 10% of the students in the program are graduate students who were already seeking a graduate degree in some area when they became interested in Actuarial Studies. Another 10% are students that already have an undergraduate degree in some area and are not seeking a second degree; rather they enroll in UT-Austin and enter the program in order to take the classes they need to prepare for actuarial exams and find entry-level actuarial jobs. The remaining 80% of the students are seeking undergraduate degrees in some major.
SUPPORT. The actuarial profession strongly supports our program. Professor Daniel works closely with the profession to help graduates of the program find entry-level jobs and to set up summer internships for continuing students. And there is fairly extensive financial aid available, primarily for continuing students that have already established a record of success in the actuarial program.
The following advice is primarily for students not already well advanced in Actuarial Studies, that is, for students that have not taken M469K by Fall 1998; advanced students should consult individually with Professor Daniel.
There are as many possible schedules for taking the actuarial concentration's core as there are students---especially since many actuarial students come to the program at various points in their education. Since the actuarial program is an informal concentration instead of a rule-bound major, flexibility is possible in order to meet each student's needs and circumstance. The class schedules provided would be ideal for an entering freshman already interested in becoming an actuary, but they should provide rough guidance for others as well. Interested students joining the program at a later stage should definitely consult with Professor Daniel. Included are sample schedules for students that major in Mathematics and for students that major in some area of the College of Business Administration, since these two groups constitute the majority of actuarial students. Other students should be able to get ideas for patterns of classes by seeing when the core courses appear in the sample schedules for the Mathematics or Business students.
The UT program receives strong financial support and cooperation from many individuals and organizations in the professional actuarial community throughout the greater Southwest and elsewhere. We received gifts from about 100 individuals and businesses last year as well as support from such professional organizations as the Actuaries Club of the Southwest and the Southwest Actuarial Forum. Nearly 25 companies interviewed our job-hunting students.
We have been especially fortunate to benefit from the advice, support, and participation of the members of two advisory groups for the program. One?the Actuarial Studies Advisory Council?provides advice for the actuarial program on all its activities. The other?the Advisory Board of CBA Alumni in the Actuarial Profession?is composed of College of Business Administration (CBA) alumni of UT-Austin that are interested in encouraging CBA students to participate in the actuarial program. Students with questions about actuarial careers are encouraged to contact any of the listed members.
Actuarial Studies Advisory Council
Advisory Board of CBA Alumni in the Actuarial Profession
With fewer than 100 students participating, the program has a small and friendly feeling despite being imbedded in a huge university. The typical student will have the same instructor, Professor Daniel, and many of the same classmates in four different classes spread over three or four years. The Daniels' annual fall party brings the students together with the Austin-area actuaries, while their May graduation party provides the opportunity for goodbyes.
The Actuarial Student Club organizes talks ("What is a casualty actuary?"), panels ("How to interview for an actuarial job"), study groups for professional exams, and the like. Its reception at the Actuarial Studies Advisory Council meetings lets the students and the influential actuaries that advise the program get to know one another.
The University of Texas Actuarial Alumni Association each semester organizes activites such as career-info panels and mock job interviews, allowing present students to meet with recent graduates and hear first-hand about their early work experiences.
You can find a lot more information on various aspects of the actuarial studies program by exploring the hypertext links imbedded in the text of this document. All students admitted to UT-Austin and meeting the course prerequisites of the actuarial classes are welcome to participate in the actuarial program; for information on admission to The Univeristy, contact The Office of Admissions.
If you still have questions about the actuarial program or profession, contact Professor James W. Daniel, Director of Actuarial Studies, Mathematics Department, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712. Feel free to call him at 512/471-7168 or to drop by his RLM 11.174 office at Speedway and Dean Keeton Street (formerly 26th Street); the most likely time to catch him in his office during the fall or spring semester is 9-11 a.m. Monday through Thursday. His electronic mail address on INTERNET is jimdaniel@mail.utexas.edu .