Actuarial Studies (1 Viewer)

inedible

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Hello, I'm quite interested in this course, doing 4U maths at school.

What is the kind of difficulty in this course compared with other courses, e.g. finance.
Which are the best universities for doing this? I heard Maq is the best, but UNSW if you can get a co-op program. What about ANU or UMelb? Thanks for taking the time to read this thread especially if you do actuary =]

Thanks.
 

lychnobity

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ie anecdotal evidence (my own experiences, and others in older years at UNSW)

You're hit with MATH1151 - the toughest first year math course available. It's almost completely different to high school maths. It's not one subject, but 2, consisting of an algebra and calculus section AND you have a computing component which you must self teach and learn.

ACTL1001 - designed to wean out the lesser students. Harder than some 2nd year subjects (apparently)

From Michelle Ng, Social Director of ASOC:

"Actuarial studies requires A LOT of work, if you're not 100% sure that it's what you want to do, then you're wasting your time. It doesn't really crossover with any other career path or major, so you really have to have a lot of motivation to stay in the course."
 

Monstar

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Depends who you wanna work for..

If you're looking into funds/asset/wealth management, a statistical background is common.. but Acst is quite prevalent as well.

It doesn't matter where/what you decide to do tbh. A acst degree with good marks holds you good stead for say, a trader role.. or like i said before funds management. Heck, acst might even put you into M&A territory if you can present yourself well enough.

Theres plenty of options out there if you're a smart kid who can do maths. As for pure maths, I'm not sure on it...Student why do you recommend maths?
 

dvse

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Theres plenty of options out there if you're a smart kid who can do maths. As for pure maths, I'm not sure on it...Student why do you recommend maths?
It is not possible to really understand applications of mathematics by studying the applications themselves (finance, actuarial, operations research, to a lesser but still considerable degree statistics etc). If one studies fundamentals like algebra geometry and analysis, however, after a while most applications will be pretty obvious.

Of course, this is not advice suitable for everyone but only those who want a real education (which is damn difficult to find outside the grad schools of top 10 US universities nowadays).
 

Monstar

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ehh its like what i said before.. it depends what you want.

Imo if i had a maths mind i'd pick the route of the trader..
 

hungryaussieyum

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dvse i've read many of your posts, and i agree with them. however im curious what kind of situation career wise you are in right now. Judging from all your posts you seem to be a pretty old guy who has been to many universities websites including faculty websites and rummaged through to see if you can find anything interesting. This includes blogs etc. You read too much on this, it's almost as if you want to be an academic.

You keep on advocating math education is fundamental to a lot of the stuff, which is true but kind in mind that on bos.org you are unlikely to find REAL hard working talent aKa prodigy like terrence tao.

Most people studying something like Mathematics at uni in australia waste their time, because if you really know where these grads actually end up, you'll be disappointed.

Only the top % of undergraduate math students actually get anywhere. most of them can't find decent jobs because it takes a real mind to anything remotely rewarding. A large amount of them can't find jobs in private sector and end up becoming a maths teacher that-is not their dream. Australia brain drain hello? So please stop encouraging students to study math because you should do that in forums where prospective Harvard MIT students hang about etc insert ivy league uni here.

So dvse can you tell me via PM or right here, (so everyone can see) your situation career wise so we know where you are coming from. I can tell you are constantly reading and researching a lot of stuff but kind in mind that everyone wants a good job that pays well and there's no point in telling ppl to study math to be some quant analyst because that profession is small and competitive.

So please stop giving misleading career advice to bos.org students, because for all practical purposes even those who think they're substance end up not getting where they want. dvse if im not mistaken are you nostalgic(regret something) or , or have you failed your university GPA and unfortunately never got into the dream job?

You keep stressing about a real education. We all know education here is shit in australia. Student staff ratios are horrid and we dont have the best staff here. Some people are obsessed with education and laugh at other who havent seen true fundamentals of theory and logic but please don't force it on others. We all care about money. everything else we missed out on regarding education we don't blame the shit uni. WE STUDY and learn more in our OWN time.

Student leader may have been convinced to do maths, idc if he enjoys it or not or is confident about his career, but in the worst possible situation in that he doesn't maintain a high GPA, he will find it ridiculously hard to find a good job he actually likes. I'll assume he isn't real talent which means he wasted his time studying math. He should have studied engineering.
 
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dvse

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I think your questions can be answered by perusing the search function.

I was going to rant about mass market higher education, but perhaps another time.

I am categorically not advocating an academic career in mathematics or going after quant roles (other than as an exit route from academia) which is how you seem to have read it and always encourage people to do double degrees etc. It is not at all hard to maintain a decent GPA - doesn't take terence tao to get a DN in an abstract algebra or analysis class.

I suppose my main point is that one needs to be aware of some actual maths, not the dumbed down variants seen in "professional" degrees, to actually be a technically competent professional - actuary, engineer etc.
 
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Monstar

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I suppose my main point is that one needs to be aware of some actual maths, not the dumbed down variants seen in "professional" degrees, to actually be a technically competent professional - actuary, engineer etc.
but dvse, thats not true at all..

just look around you or talk to friends of friends..
 

hungryaussieyum

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staff aren't bothered with consultation times. they're sick and tired of students emailing them, e.g what should i study to prepare for the exam?

everything is dumbed down because student staff ratios are bad.
professors would really like to see some enthusiastic high achieving students.

You want good or better curriculum go to the the u.s for it.

also most degrees are cut down and streamlined so that universities can cut down costs uni staff would really like to see students graduate quickly out of their sights.
 

kaz1

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You're hit with MATH1151 - the toughest first year math course available. It's almost completely different to high school maths. It's not one subject, but 2, consisting of an algebra and calculus section AND you have a computing component which you must self teach and learn.
That's like true for all the first year maths courses at UNSW.
 

lyounamu

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havent' done actuarial maths yet. but math1151 is seriously quite manageable if you did okay with 4 unit maths (let's say 80+). some guy who got low 80 in 4 unit is like kicking some people's asses already. so as long as you study (at least rote learn the method to solve the question) you will be fine.
 

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