<p>I’ll jump in. I’m not an actuary, but I married one (insert joke here). Wife knew since high school that she wanted to be an actuary. She dual-majored in math and computer science. I don’t think her school had an actuarial major, and in hindsight it really didn’t matter. She got her advanced math education, passed her first exam during college, and easily got a job with a major insurance company. </p>
<p>Even if you know for sure that you want to be an actuary, you do not need to major in actuarial science. You can major in math, applied math, etc., maybe take some actuarial courses, take an exam, and see if you like the career. Check out beanactuary.org.</p>
<p>As for those exams, you have no idea how hard they are. Imagine some of the hardest exams you have heard about (bar exam, etc.). Now imagine passing 8-10 of them. And like Emergent said, they do get progressively harder. Wife has been stuck the final one for 10 years. Failed it 7 times.</p>