@Bearly I think overall it isn’t too bad with at least 3 exams and a decent GPA, but it’s just there aren’t a lot of jobs for it in SoCal. That senior said that most grads end up moving to New England or Canada where there are much more actuarial jobs: especially for most UCLA grads who often have minimal work experience in the field due to lack of opportunities nearby. Apparently, if your ultimate goal is to stay in SoCal and don’t want to relocate, even temporarily, to the east, then it might be more beneficial to take UCSB’s BS/MS programme that has better networking opportunities.
As far as SF, I don’t have solid numbers but I wouldn’t doubt that there are more opportunities there as most of the major insurance agencies use SF as their regional hub. Cal’s career center lists “actuary” track jobs as one of the most placed careers in their exit surveys. However, those surveys also show a fairly high initial unemployment rate which I find worrisome: I’m willing to bet it’s still the same problem of few opportunities to get initial work experience. I’ll definitely grill the career center when I go up there in a couple of weeks though.
If you find out any other info, please share it though.