<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>I may be very interested in actuarial studies, but Northeastern doesn’t have that as a major. Is NEU one of those schools who encourage taking up your own major. Are the classes there to help me with this?</p>
<p>Also, I’d like to hear your thoughts about the Honors Program and IV. Is there ever a feeling of separation from the school? What classes are separate (general studies?)?</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>It’s near impossible to “take up your own major” although under rare situations, people have gotten duals created if they could prove there was enough interest (but from 2 majors that already exist). As of now, actuarial students are just math majors or math duals with something else (like economics).</p>
<p>But you should e-mail the math department. Right now, they are putting it a lot of new programs and exam aids for actuarial students because we have so many. I don’t know if an actual major is being formed, and I doubt it is, but I know they are definitely putting new things in place to help them. We also have huge connections with the actuarial programs in Boston, and over 10 co-ops every semester go to John Hancock for actuarial science. People still have problems with the exams and VEEs though, which is why the math department is working on that.</p>
<p>Email the head math advisor. He’s the nicest guy in the world, guaranteed. I’m currently heading that route with just a math major, but I think what they generally do is encourage a business minor, or possibly some sort of dual with business. Plenty of people have gotten into the field successfully and there are a good amount of actuarial co-ops. I’ll agree that the main problem is VEEs, which I didn’t know about until too late. I got my economics ones in, but there are a lot of annoying prereqs you need to get some of the others.</p>
<p>As far as “creating your own major,” I’ve only ever heard of a few people who got permission to create their own dual degrees. Worth a shot though, reach out to administration.</p>
<p>Oh and I can talk about honors too - You generally need to take six honors classes during your time at Northeastern. There aren’t too many that are actually in your major - so if you took AP Calc AB in high school, say, you probably aren’t going to sign up for Honors Calc 1 just so you can fulfill one of those honors requirements. The “in-major” courses are usually only low level. In math, I think they just offer calculus, and maybe differential equations. The honors sections also might not fit into your schedule, just based on times. So a lot of your honors courses will end up being your core requirements or your electives. Personally, I’ve found it to be kind of a hassle, because I’d rather not limit my choices of electives so much, but that’s not the general opinion. And when you compare Northeastern to other schools, especially if you go for a Bachelor of Science degree, there are very few gen eds, so it’s not a huge deal.</p>
<p>Now, this is 100% not the average opinion, or I don’t think, but I will say yes, I did feel a sort of sense of separation. Living in IV was great because of the suite-style dorm, but for whatever reason, I didn’t really click with the people living in the “honors community.” Most people make some of their best friends in their freshman dorms, but I kind of got an overall overachiever feel for a lot of people I’d meet. Now and then I’d kind of wonder where all the normal, more laid back people were.</p>
<p>But I mean, the majority of your classes aren’t honors classes - there are plenty of opportunities to meet other people. I think I just wasn’t suited to living in the honors dorm.</p>