Can UChicago prepare me for becoming an Actuary?

JHS
Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:14:09 +0000

Actuarial math majors may not “generally” exist at top universities, but Penn has both a major in Insurance with a concentration in actuarial science in its Wharton School and a minor in actuarial mathematics in its College of Arts and Sciences. NYU’s Stern School has an undergraduate major. Columbia offers a Master’s degree, and has courses that are open to undergraduates. And I think pretty much every public university offers it, including top universities like Michigan, Berkeley, and UVa.

But apart from that what phuriku says is right: You don’t really need a branded actuarial science program – it’s a bunch of applied math, statistics, and finance, and perfectly easy to replicate from the vantage point of a math or statistics major, or really any social science major if you pay attention to this as a goal. And lots of people enter the profession through training programs with insurance companies or independent firms that will take you the last nth of the way to getting certified and learning what you really need to know beyond certification.