B Commerce - MAJORS? (1 Viewer)

[abhi23]

Hello commerce students

I have one important question which I'm hoping you guys could help me with.
I know I want to do Bachelor of Commerce (hopefully UNSW) but after just starting to think about what majors to do, I'm a bit confused.

The dilemma of sorts is between choosing Finance or Actuarial Studies.
Actuarial studies is definitely the one that seems more interesting but only problem is the perceived difficulty of the course which frightens me. I'm no maths genius but do you have to be one to succeed in this course?? I think I can get a mid band 5 in MX2 at max (but i understand uni maths is heaps diff).

Now I've researched these two majors a fair bit but students perspectives will be greatly appreciated .

Out of Finance and Actuarial Studies which one has the better career prospects in terms of range and demand?
Which one makes a better combo with INternational Business?
And Actuarial studies students - you guys still have social lives and awesome fun right and all those who say you don't are wrong?

I realise that it will be hard to answer those questions subjectively because I doubt there are that many people doing both majors above, but seriously any comments/help is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thankyou.

 

[ComingUpForAir]

Of course you dont have to be a literal maths savant/genius to do actuarial studies, but you do have to be an above avergave maths student
The maths covered will be alot harder than that covered in almost all science/engineering courses (aside from straight maths major)

 

[moll.]

Hello commerce students

I have one important question which I'm hoping you guys could help me with.
I know I want to do Bachelor of Commerce (hopefully UNSW) but after just starting to think about what majors to do, I'm a bit confused.

The dilemma of sorts is between choosing Finance or Actuarial Studies.
Actuarial studies is definitely the one that seems more interesting but only problem is the perceived difficulty of the course which frightens me. I'm no maths genius but do you have to be one to succeed in this course?? I think I can get a mid band 5 in MX2 at max (but i understand uni maths is heaps diff).

Now I've researched these two majors a fair bit but students perspectives will be greatly appreciated .

Out of Finance and Actuarial Studies which one has the better career prospects in terms of range and demand?
Which one makes a better combo with INternational Business?
And Actuarial studies students - you guys still have social lives and awesome fun right and all those who say you don't are wrong?

I realise that it will be hard to answer those questions subjectively because I doubt there are that many people doing both majors above, but seriously any comments/help is welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thankyou.

Why not just do the first year of Commerce, and then decide? You don't need to choose before you start.
And International Business is shit dude.

 

[wrong_turn]

actually, for actuarial studies, you kind of have to choose at the start. you begin doing actuarial units in first year. i think they may even interview you.

 

[scora]

Out of Finance and Actuarial Studies which one has the better career prospects in terms of range and demand?

range? i'm guessing that the range is fairly broad for both strands i.e. you can go into investment banking and the likes. However if u come out with a single degree in finance the job market is pretty competitive and you're gonna have to need something that shines above other people. After having done actuarial studies, i would probably say there would be less competition in the types of positions you would be vying for. However, again it depends who you are and your emplolyability for these things.

 

[moll.]

actually, for actuarial studies, you kind of have to choose at the start. you begin doing actuarial units in first year. i think they may even interview you.

They might have changed it since you started, cos I and my cohort never got this option.

 

[jooyang91]

im also a prospective Commerce student at UNSW..
but i think i saw somewhere that you can do 2 majors under the commerce course.. Am i wrong??

 

[moll.]

im also a prospective Commerce student at UNSW..
but i think i saw somewhere that you can do 2 majors under the commerce course.. Am i wrong??

True, but there are exceptions.
Straight Commerce gets you two majors, or a major and two minors or some combination of such.
Combined Commerce majors depend what you combine it with. I'm doing Commerce and Economics combined, so I basically get three majors from the School of Business, two for Comm, one for Econ. Comm/Arts and Comm(Lib) gets same, with only one for Arts/Lib Studies. Don't know about the rest.
You do realise this is all on their website and rather than be a lazy bastard you could actually use your brain for once?

 

[wrong_turn]

in com/arts, i'm quite sure you get 4 majors in total if you choose to have all 4.

i.e. 2 from business and 2 from arts.

 

[moll.]

in com/arts, i'm quite sure you get 4 majors in total if you choose to have all 4.

i.e. 2 from business and 2 from arts.

Oh yeah hey. You guys do an extra year. So I suppose the extra 48 credits go towards a new major.
Well my point about Comm(Lib) still stands anyway.

 

[akqjt]

Do not to International Business or Management - they are the least vocational of any major (so lowest career prospects) and they aren't that enriching knowledge wise either. Final year BComm(UNSW) here. Trust me on this.

Do Actuarial/Finance but make sure you do well! If you do this combination of majors you will be vying for very competitive positions, whether as an actuary or in some kind of investment banking capacity. This is the best advice you'll get, otherwise do an accounting major where there is an ample amount of opportunity for someone without a stellar transcript. You don't want a C average in ACTL/Finance, trust me.

 

[abhi23]

WOW thanks everyone. Really helpful advice. + repped all.

 

[abhi23]

Finance and Actuarial workload would be mega heavy though from the looks of it.

Hmmmm, are there any Actuarial students out there who could give us an idea of contact hours, study time etc.?
I've read somewhere that 1 hour of exam = 100 hours of study, any truth to that?

Oh and Finance students as well, how is your workload??

 

[ascentyx]

Finance and Actuarial workload would be mega heavy though from the looks of it.

Hmmmm, are there any Actuarial students out there who could give us an idea of contact hours, study time etc.?
I've read somewhere that 1 hour of exam = 100 hours of study, any truth to that?

Oh and Finance students as well, how is your workload??

I'm doing actuarial and appfin @ macquarie so maybe i can help to answer some of the questions. Honestly even if you don't go as great in maths as you thought you would it's worth giving actuarial a try. At uni it's a different playing field, like i know heaps of people with lower uais (just making it in) going great at uni and others with really high uais repeating subjects etc. Sure on average the people that go better in the hsc will go better in uni but just because you don't go ridiculously good in maths it doesn't mean you can't go great in uni.

The main thing i woudl suggest is do something you like, if you like the sound of actuarial studies give it a try. In terms of the amount of study you do, it's really dependent on how fast you can pick up concepts and stuff. I don't do that much study but when i do i try to make it as efficient as possible (covering the things that i'm worst at, or things that are going to be tested heaps). I'm not sure about the contact hours at unsw but i'm doing 5 subjects this semester and it's roughly 16 hours per week.

Yeah so pretty much do actuarial studies cause it's mad and super interesting. who doesn't want to learn stochastic processes? oh and yeah actuaries have social lives, lol. we are party animals

 

[lyounamu]

I'm doing actuarial and appfin @ macquarie so maybe i can help to answer some of the questions. Honestly even if you don't go as great in maths as you thought you would it's worth giving actuarial a try. At uni it's a different playing field, like i know heaps of people with lower uais (just making it in) going great at uni and others with really high uais repeating subjects etc. Sure on average the people that go better in the hsc will go better in uni but just because you don't go ridiculously good in maths it doesn't mean you can't go great in uni.

The main thing i woudl suggest is do something you like, if you like the sound of actuarial studies give it a try. In terms of the amount of study you do, it's really dependent on how fast you can pick up concepts and stuff. I don't do that much study but when i do i try to make it as efficient as possible (covering the things that i'm worst at, or things that are going to be tested heaps). I'm not sure about the contact hours at unsw but i'm doing 5 subjects this semester and it's roughly 16 hours per week.

Yeah so pretty much do actuarial studies cause it's mad and super interesting. who doesn't want to learn stochastic processes? oh and yeah actuaries have social lives, lol. we are party animals

thanks terry!

 

[akqjt]

Finance and Actuarial workload would be mega heavy though from the looks of it.

Hmmmm, are there any Actuarial students out there who could give us an idea of contact hours, study time etc.?
I've read somewhere that 1 hour of exam = 100 hours of study, any truth to that?

Oh and Finance students as well, how is your workload??

Finance is mostly wrote learning, the concepts aren't hard. Doing well is just putting in the effort mostly. Actuarial studies requires a lot more logical reasoning. Everyone I know doing actuarial considers their finance subjects as a break.

 

[abhi23]

Finance is mostly wrote learning, the concepts aren't hard. Doing well is just putting in the effort mostly. Actuarial studies requires a lot more logical reasoning. Everyone I know doing actuarial considers their finance subjects as a break.

Excellent, just what I wanted to hear.

 

[lyounamu]

^agreed. I reallly wanted to hear that too

i guess it's def actuarial + finance combination for meeeeee

 

[duckcowhybrid]

Pretty much the combo I have my heart set on when I go to Uni (with a bit of luck I can get a Scientia for Comm/Eco and do an Economics 3rd major.