What Can I Do with an Actuarial Science Degree?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Actu­ar­i­al sci­ence grad­u­ates can work in var­i­ous sec­tors, includ­ing insur­ance, finance, and con­sult­ing, where they ana­lyze risks and probabilities.
• To become an actu­ary, you will need to pass a series of exams which are rig­or­ous and require a strong under­stand­ing of math­e­mat­ics and statistics.
• The demand for actu­ar­ies is expect­ed to grow as indus­tries become more data-dri­ven and com­plex, high­light­ing the impor­tance of risk assess­ment skills.

If you’re con­sid­er­ing a career in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, then you’re look­ing at an excit­ing career path. Actu­ar­ies get to exam­ine a lot of sce­nar­ios, and they make a lot of mon­ey doing it. For those who enjoy math and sta­tis­tics, there is no career option quite like becom­ing an actuary.

But what is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence about? And what does an actu­ar­i­al sci­en­tist do, specif­i­cal­ly? Is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence a good major for you? Actu­ar­i­al sci­ence an impor­tant line of work, and not every­one is equipped to do it. It takes a lot of hard work, ded­i­ca­tion, and will­ing­ness to get back up after failing.

If you want infor­ma­tion about actu­ar­i­al sci­ence because you’re con­sid­er­ing it as a career, then you prob­a­bly have a unique set of pas­sions and tal­ents, and you want to put them to good use. An actu­ar­i­al career will absolute­ly help you do that.

What is Actuarial Science?

Now, the answer to the “What is an actu­ar­i­al sci­en­tist?” ques­tion isn’t always as straight­for­ward as peo­ple might like it to be. Nei­ther is the “What is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence about?” ques­tion, unfor­tu­nate­ly. The truth is that infor­ma­tion about actu­ar­i­al sci­ence can get con­fus­ing. That’s because actu­ar­i­al sci­ence is essen­tial­ly sev­er­al pro­fes­sions in one. Actu­ar­ies are basi­cal­ly sta­tis­ti­cians, econ­o­mists, accoun­tants, and insur­ance experts all at the same time. Of course, for a lot of peo­ple, that’s exact­ly what makes the career so exciting.

So, what does an actu­ar­i­al sci­en­tist do? The easy answer is that they work for insur­ance com­pa­nies. If you become an actu­ary and some­one at a par­ty asks you “What is an actu­ar­i­al sci­en­tist, exact­ly?” It may be eas­i­est to stick with that answer. You might have a smoother con­ver­sa­tion that way, since it can be tough to explain actu­ar­i­al sci­ence over fin­ger foods.

On the oth­er hand, if the per­son seems real­ly inter­est­ed in the details, you might tell them more about your work and what it entails.

Insur­ance com­pa­nies employ actu­ar­i­al sci­en­tists to look at sta­tis­tics and prob­a­bil­i­ties. Actu­ar­ies do the math to deter­mine the like­li­hood of dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios, and then they fig­ure out an insur­ance com­pa­ny’s finan­cial risks in light of these sce­nar­ios. For exam­ple, an actu­ary can fig­ure out the like­li­hood of a tor­na­do hit­ting a spe­cif­ic area, or they can deter­mine the mor­tal­i­ty rates for spe­cif­ic demo­graph­ics. This way, insur­ance com­pa­nies can be pre­pared to make pay­outs when nec­es­sary. They can also gain the infor­ma­tion they’ll need to price their prod­ucts accurately.

So, now that you’ve asked “What does an actu­ar­i­al sci­en­tist do?” is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence a good major for you? Well, do you enjoy the idea of work­ing for an insur­ance com­pa­ny? Do you enjoy num­bers and sta­tis­tics? Would you like a job that lets you do com­plex math on a dai­ly basis? And can you han­dle the idea of tak­ing sev­er­al exams before you get cer­ti­fied? If so, then actu­ar­i­al sci­ence may be a great major for you. Ready to learn more about your options? Then take a look below. The next sev­er­al sec­tions will cov­er actu­ar­i­al top­ics, including:

• What is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence about?
• How does a per­son become an actuary?
• What are some actu­ary career options?
• What kind of salary does an actu­ary make?

Actu­ar­i­al sci­ence is a com­plex top­ic. The para­graphs below can help you find answers to your questions.

Choosing a College for Actuarial Science

If you want to become an actu­ary, you’ll need to start with the right edu­ca­tion. You have a lot of great options, part­ly because you don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need to attend one of the best actu­ar­i­al sci­ence schools. That’s because you may not need an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree at all. Of course, actu­ar­i­al sci­ence is a good major for future actu­ar­ies, and if you know that you want to attend one of the best actu­ar­i­al schools, then that deci­sion can absolute­ly help you in your career. Find­ing the top actu­ar­i­al sci­ence col­leges cer­tain­ly is one of the more straight­for­ward pathways.

That said, you can also start your career by major­ing in sta­tis­tics, math, or a sim­i­lar ana­lyt­i­cal field. They key is to sharp­en your ana­lyt­i­cal skills and learn how to apply those skills to a busi­ness setting.

So, whether you take the gen­er­al route or the spe­cif­ic route, what should you look for in the best actu­ar­i­al sci­ence pro­grams? What sets the best actu­ar­i­al sci­ence schools and the top actu­ar­i­al sci­ence pro­grams apart from the rest?

You can start by googling the top actu­ar­i­al sci­ence col­leges and best col­leges for sta­tis­tics. You’ll find lots of choic­es with great math and busi­ness pro­grams that way. From there, you can nar­row your search.

As you search the top actu­ar­i­al col­leges, your first pri­or­i­ty should be find­ing an accred­it­ed school. Accred­it­ed col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties meet par­tic­u­lar stan­dards for edu­ca­tion. When you attend an accred­it­ed school, whether or not it’s one of the top schools for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, you’ll know that you’re get­ting a worth­while education.

The best actu­ar­i­al schools will cov­er the right cours­es. Again, you don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need one of the top actu­ar­i­al sci­ence pro­grams to get these cours­es. But whether you attend one of the top actu­ar­i­al sci­ence schools or earn a relat­ed degree, you should look for some spe­cif­ic class offerings.

First, you’ll def­i­nite­ly need some ana­lyt­ics and sta­tis­tics class­es. The top actu­ar­i­al sci­ence schools should also offer advanced math cours­es like cal­cu­lus and lin­ear alge­bra. You’ll need micro­eco­nom­ics and macro­eco­nom­ics cours­es. (If you don’t attend one of the top actu­ary col­leges, hav­ing a math major and a busi­ness minor can help you here.)

Believe it or not, you’ll also need some writ­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion class­es. The top under­grad­u­ate actu­ar­i­al sci­ence pro­grams require these cours­es. That’s because lead­ers at the top actu­ary col­leges know that actu­ar­ies do more than pre­dict events; They also have to explain their find­ings in an acces­si­ble way. You can be excel­lent at math, and you can attend one of the best actu­ar­i­al sci­ence under­grad­u­ate pro­grams avail­able, but if you can’t com­mu­ni­cate with peo­ple who don’t have your skills, then you won’t be near­ly as effec­tive as you could be.

Next, as you look at the top actu­ar­i­al col­leges and the top under­grad­u­ate actu­ar­i­al sci­ence pro­grams, don’t for­get about your par­tic­u­lar needs and require­ments. Even if you attend one of the top schools for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, it won’t mat­ter if that school does­n’t fit your needs.

What are you look­ing for in your col­lege expe­ri­ence? Again, your ini­tial search for the top col­leges for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence will help you get start­ed, but that search is just the tip of the ice­berg. Con­sid­er your pri­or­i­ties. Those pri­or­i­ties might include:

• Cost, finan­cial aid, and schol­ar­ship opportunities
• Class size
• Loca­tion
• Reli­gious affiliation
• Online learn­ing opportunities

Not all the top col­leges for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence will meet your needs, so don’t skip this step when you start your col­lege search.

Types of Actuarial Science Degrees

While you can become an actu­ary with a degree in math or sta­tis­tics, you might have decid­ed to pur­sue an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree rather than some­thing more gen­er­al. But what is an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree? A bach­e­lor’s degree in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence will cov­er the things you need to know for an entry-lev­el actu­ar­i­al posi­tion. Cours­es will cov­er advanced math, sta­tis­tics, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and eco­nom­ics. They may also cov­er top­ics relat­ed to the insur­ance field, specifically.

With a bach­e­lor’s degree in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, you may be able to pur­sue a con­cen­tra­tion in a spe­cif­ic area. A lot of peo­ple asso­ciate actu­ar­ies with life insur­ance, but many oth­er insur­ance com­pa­nies hire actu­ar­ies. You may be able to con­cen­trate in health, risk man­age­ment, cor­po­rate insur­ance, or anoth­er area of specialization.

Final­ly, you can also pur­sue a degree in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence online, if that’s what works best for you. Online actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degrees cov­er the same course­work and are often taught by the same teach­ers as their on-cam­pus counterparts.

There are many rea­sons to look into actu­ar­i­al sci­ence online degrees. For exam­ple, if you’re an adult learn­er with respon­si­bil­i­ties out­side of school, then look­ing into actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degrees online can help you find flex­i­ble course options.

While some online actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degrees may require one or two vis­its to cam­pus, oth­er actu­ar­i­al sci­ence online degrees are 100% online and require no cam­pus time. Some pro­grams may have set login times. How­ev­er, when you look into actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degrees, online options do often include self-paced cours­es, which means that you could fin­ish your degree on your own time. In any case, an online degree can help you get your edu­ca­tion if an on-cam­pus degree just isn’t fea­si­ble right now.

A degree in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, online or oth­er­wise, can help you pur­sue the career that aligns with your goals.

Becoming an Actuary

Now, you got the “what is an actu­ary” answer with the def­i­n­i­tion of actu­ary list­ed above. But now you prob­a­bly have some oth­er ques­tions. For instance, what does an actu­ary do every day? What goes into the actu­ary job descrip­tion? After all, you can’t real­ly know the def­i­n­i­tion of an actu­ary if you can’t name what an actu­ary does from one day to the next.

For that mat­ter, you might be ask­ing how to become an actu­ary your­self. How long does it take to become an actu­ary? You’ll get the answers to those ques­tions in this section.

You can start with the first ques­tion: What exact­ly is in the actu­ary job descrip­tion? A lot of peo­ple are con­fused by what an actu­ary does. Now, what actu­ar­ies do can vary because actu­ar­ies work on dif­fer­ent projects. It’s part of the descrip­tion of an actu­ary. Once they fin­ish one project, they move on to the next one, and they often work on a few projects at once.

But what do actu­ar­ies do on an aver­age day? First, an actu­ary arrives at the work­place, which is usu­al­ly a spe­cif­ic divi­sion of an insur­ance com­pa­ny. Careers as an actu­ary can vary based on which divi­sion an actu­ary works in. What does an actu­ary do from there? At this point, the actu­ary job descrip­tion involves doing some math to answer ques­tions from the insur­ance com­pa­ny. Those ques­tions might include:

• What is the life expectan­cy of this par­tic­u­lar demographic?
• How like­ly are motor­cy­cle acci­dents among this age group?
• What are the chance of a major flood in our area this year?

When peo­ple ask “what is an actu­ary?” one pos­si­ble answer is that an actu­ary is some­one who answers ques­tions. The def­i­n­i­tion of actu­ary work involves a lot of prob­lem-solv­ing. What does an actu­ary do to answer those ques­tions? They apply finan­cial the­o­ry, math, and sta­tis­tics to find the answers.

A descrip­tion of an actu­ary job might also men­tion reports and meet­ings. Once an actu­ary fig­ures out the like­li­hood of an event, they put togeth­er a report on that infor­ma­tion. Then, they’ll either pass the report along to their boss­es, or they’ll present their find­ings in a meet­ing. That’s why careers as an actu­ary involve good com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.

So, now that you’ve gone even deep­er into the “what is an actu­ary” ques­tion, you might be ask­ing your­self: “How do I become an actu­ary?” The first step to an actu­ar­ies career is to get the right train­ing and edu­ca­tion. Again, you can start an actu­ar­ies career with­out major­ing in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence. But you will want to attend a school that will pre­pare you for your career, and there are sev­er­al great careers for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence majors.

To become a cer­ti­fied pro­fes­sion­al actu­ary, you’ll have to take a series of actu­ar­i­al exams. At this point, you might have sev­er­al ques­tions again. For exam­ple, a lot of peo­ple want to know:

• What are actu­ar­i­al exams?
• What is the actu­ar­i­al exams pass rate? And do I need to be wor­ried about actu­ar­i­al exam pass rates?
• What is the cost of actu­ar­i­al exams? Can I afford these actu­ar­i­al exam costs?
• How many actu­ar­i­al exams are there? Is there a list of actu­ar­i­al exams?
• How do I become an actu­ary if I should fail an exam? Is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence a good career for me even if I fail an exam?

You’ll find the answers in the next sev­er­al paragraphs.

First, what are actu­ar­i­al exams? Actu­ar­i­al exams come from two orga­ni­za­tions: Casu­al­ty Actu­ar­i­al Soci­ety (CAS) and the Soci­ety of Actu­ar­ies (SOA). These exams test a per­son­’s abil­i­ty to per­form actu­ar­i­al tasks effectively.

Sec­ond, what is the actu­ar­i­al exams pass rate? Actu­ar­i­al exam pass rates can vary depend­ing on the exam. How­ev­er, it’s impor­tant to note that these exams are extreme­ly dif­fi­cult. The ini­tial exams have a pass rate of only 30–40%, so the “what is an actu­ary exam” ques­tion is just the tip of the ice­berg. The good news, how­ev­er, is that you can retake actu­ar­i­al exams if you fail them on your first try. So if this infor­ma­tion is mak­ing you ask “Is actu­ar­i­al sci­ence a good career after all?” don’t get discouraged.

Third, what is the cost of actu­ar­i­al exams? Since there are so many actu­ar­i­al exams, a lot of future actu­ar­ies wor­ry about the actu­ar­i­al exam costs. They are expen­sive exams, rang­ing from $250 for the ear­li­est exams to well over $1000 for the most advanced exams. Again, don’t get dis­cour­aged, because you may not have to pay for all of these exams out of pocket.

You can start your actu­ary career as a trainee, which is the most com­mon path­way for actu­ar­ies. You’ll prob­a­bly be expect­ed to take the first cou­ple of exams before you grad­u­ate from col­lege, but your employ­er may pay for the rest of your exams as you move through the ranks. Many employ­ers pay for study mate­ri­als, too.

Fourth, how many actu­ar­i­al exams are there? Actu­ar­ies are expect­ed to pass a min­i­mum of sev­en exams. The list of actu­ar­i­al exams can look over­whelm­ing, but remem­ber that you don’t have to take all of these exams at once.

Final­ly, is an actu­ary a good career for you even if you fail your first exam? It can be! A lot of actu­ar­ies fail their exams on the first try. So if you’ve gone from “What is an actu­ary exam?” to “Is an actu­ary a good career?” after learn­ing the answer, try to take things one step at a time.

Now you’ve seen how to become an actu­ary. So, with all of the exams and train­ing, how long does it take to become an actu­ary? How many years does it take to become an actu­ary if you have to take some exams more than once? The train­ing and exams can take between three and five years.

Careers in Actuarial Science

“What can I do with a degree in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence if I decide not to take the exams?” some stu­dents want to know. “What jobs can I get with an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree?” Well, it turns out that an actu­ary degree can lead to a lot of oppor­tu­ni­ties. Whether you look into actu­ar­i­al sci­ence jobs or jobs relat­ed to actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, the skills you’ll learn in your degree pro­gram will make you extreme­ly valu­able in the workforce.

So, what can you do with an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree? More specif­i­cal­ly, what jobs can you get with an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree? The short answer is “a lot.” Even bet­ter, most actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree jobs pay very well. Since you’re think­ing about actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree jobs, start by look­ing at jobs for actu­ar­ies. Again, entry-lev­el actu­ary jobs are usu­al­ly trainee posi­tions. Oth­er jobs for actu­ar­ies include actu­ary assis­tant options. Some entry-lev­el actu­ary jobs can lead to these positions.

In spite of the chal­leng­ing exams, there’s a rea­son why entry-lev­el jobs in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence are so appeal­ing. The future of actu­ar­i­al sci­ence looks bright, and the employ­ment out­look for actu­ar­ies is high. How high is the employ­ment out­look for actu­ar­ies, exact­ly? Well, jobs for actu­ar­ies are expect­ed to grow by 18% over the next sev­er­al years. The actu­ary jobs out­look is much high­er than aver­age. (For ref­er­ence, a growth rate of 9% is con­sid­ered good, and the actu­ary jobs out­look is twice that number.)

How­ev­er, if you decide not to pur­sue any actu­ary sci­ence jobs, there are still plen­ty of pos­si­ble jobs for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence grad­u­ates. Although actu­ar­i­al sci­ence jobs abound, some grad­u­ates do choose not to go down that route. Those who don’t want actu­ar­i­al sci­ence jobs can look for jobs relat­ed to actu­ar­i­al sci­ence instead. Some pos­si­ble jobs for actu­ar­i­al sci­ence grad­u­ates include:

• Bank­ing and investing
• Man­age­ment
• Research analy­sis
• Cost esti­ma­tion
• Etc.

So if jobs in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence don’t turn out to be for you, then actu­ar­i­al degree jobs don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly have to mean becom­ing an actu­ary. If you’re ask­ing “What can I do with an actu­ar­i­al sci­ence degree?” the answer is more than you think. There may be a great job out­look for actu­ar­ies and lots of job oppor­tu­ni­ties in actu­ar­i­al sci­ence, but a lot of relat­ed fields are promis­ing, too.

Salary for an Actuary

Next, you’ll prob­a­bly have a lot of ques­tions about salary. Most peo­ple want to know how much mon­ey they can expect to make with their degree. That said, most peo­ple can’t expect to make the same amount as an actu­ary. So, what is the aver­age start­ing salary for an actu­ary? And what about the salary for an actu­ary who has been in the field for a while?

Start by tak­ing a look at the actu­ar­i­al sci­ence start­ing salary. Obvi­ous­ly, the entry lev­el actu­ary salary is going to be low­er than the aver­age salary of actu­ar­ies who have more expe­ri­ence. That said, actu­ary start­ing salaries are still fair­ly high. On aver­age, actu­ary start­ing salaries are about $72,700 per year.

Next, take a look at the aver­age salary of actu­ar­ies who have reached the mid-point of their careers. The aver­age salary for an actu­ary at this point is more than $108,000.

Of course, “What is the salary of an actu­ary?” isn’t always a straight­for­ward ques­tion, since a lot of fac­tors can come into play. The aver­age salary of actu­ar­ies in big cities, for exam­ple, may be a lot big­ger than the aver­age salary for an actu­ary in a sub­ur­ban area. Even so, actu­ar­ies can expect to earn com­fort­able salaries at all stages of their careers.

Professional Organizations

Final­ly, as you con­sid­er your degree and career options, take a look at pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions. The main orga­ni­za­tions in the US are the Soci­ety of Actu­ar­ies and Casu­al­ty Actu­ar­i­al Soci­ety. How­ev­er, there are sev­er­al oth­ers, many of which are relat­ed to spe­cif­ic divi­sions and con­cerns. Join­ing a pro­fes­sion­al soci­ety can help you in your career, espe­cial­ly with net­work­ing. Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions pro­vide an easy way to con­nect to like-mind­ed peo­ple. Fur­ther­more, you might find some job oppor­tu­ni­ties by join­ing a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion or two. Some orga­ni­za­tions have job boards and sim­i­lar resources for their members.

Relat­ed Rankings:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Actu­ar­i­al Science

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Actu­ar­i­al Science

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Actu­ar­i­al Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Actu­ar­i­al Science

15 Best Online Actu­ary Degree