Actuarial Course

mertyle

I'm thinking about becoming an actuary but I don't know which course to pick? UCD or DCU? are any of them any better or seen to be better? Also do UCD arrange work place for the students?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

The UCD degree can get you an extra exemption (CA1) over the standard set of Core Technical exemptions you can get in both courses. It's a pretty big deal as it's one of the professional exams with the biggest workloads.

There's a work placement in third year in the UCD course. You have to apply for the jobs yourself but they're advertised through the university.

Grudaire

I'm forth year DCU Actuarial course. Searching the DCU forum for Actuary pops up some good threads.

Anyway there isn't a whole lot between the two courses. One benefit to the UCD course is that there is an extra exemption available now (namely CA1). I can point out little differences like UCD do Visual Basic, whereas DCU do Matlab.

I would advise DCU based on nothing other than having done the course in DCU!

As for placement... DCU has a system set up where jobs are placed, and it's a one-click submit CV stuff. Contacting businesses go through the Intra Office. Where my understanding of the UCD system is that students must approach companies directly (although again jobs are advertised by the college), and contact is direct with the student.

mertyle

How much study time would it take to gain the extra exemption that DCU dont have.would it be a case of having to spend a huge amount of extra time in work placement trying to make up the difference. Will the exemptions gained in UCD provide a student with the full CAI or is there more involved? The points variations between the two colleges seems to be huge. Some say that UCD has a better international reputation. I am from Mayo and for me its as easy to go south of the liffey to college as north of the liffey. I am planning on going to the DCU open day tomorrow and the UCD one later in the month. I hear UCD is full of snooty social climbers and that DCU is more relaxed. Would you agree with that.

Anonymo

Mertyle, i'd recommend that if you are anyway unsure of choosing actuary not to do so. The course is quite specific so you might be better off keeping your options open. My advice would be to do something like science or math science in ucd where you can do all the statistics courses covered in actuary and broaden your base by doing more pure maths courses. From my own experience having a more solid maths foundation makes the stats much easier. If you then decide to do actuary there are plenty companies that take people on if they have a maths degree. The other option (having obtained your degree) is the 1 year GDip in actuarial studies during which you can get all the exemptions possible in the full degree course.

Richard Cranium

I'd like to add to the advice given already that exemptions are not the be all and end all, nor are you guaranteed to get them just by choosing a particular college course (you pretty much need to get a first in the relevant module, and that's by no means a foregone conclusion!), so that shouldn't be the major deciding factor in which college you choose.

In UCC (where I am now), 1st year is general Maths Science with optional Financial/Actuarial modules. It's only for 2nd year onwards that you choose whether to stick with maths science (ie pure and applied maths and statistics) or to pick the Actuarial Science degree outlet. As far as I'm aware, my course only has one (or possibly two) less possible exemption than DCU, assuming you pick all the relevant modules.

I know Cork is quite a trek from Mayo, but it does offer an amount of flexibility that other courses seem to lack.

I'd also agree with Anonymo in that there are definitely companies who hire graduates with solid maths degrees, as opposed to strictly Actuarial ones. Unless you're quite sure that you want to be an actuary, there's a lot to be said for a "straight" maths degree in any college.

Grudaire

Engineers have been known to become Actuaries as well,

As for the exemptions the exemption mark in DCU hovers between 60-65% in general (which is easier said than done in college). I can tell you that DCU do offer a 'second chance' of sorts for exemptions in that provided you pass you can repeat the exam, and if you get over the exemption mark the second time round you do get the exemption. Each exemption is based on your mark in those specific exams.

I'm not sure this is the case in other colleges, I know UCD has a funny system for getting all exemptions together that I didn't really understand.

**Timbuk2**

Last year I was debating with myself all year whether to go to DCU or UCD, to do Actuarial Science. I went to all the open days, researched both courses, even went on work experiences with actuaries to try and figure it out. It just so happened that the actuaries I visited were mostly DCU graduates (one of the main actuaries there didn't even do an actuarial course!).

I eventually settled on UCD, and I am extremely glad that I did so! The extra exemption is quite a significant factor, in my opinion - if you do really well in your course, that's 9 professional exams covered, whereas the others only do 8.

Even in terms of the college, UCD is much larger and the facilities are better, although when you're doing a Mathsy type degree, it isn't really that important!

First year is quite broad - it's to give you a good base in case you don't end up doing Actuary. My friends in Maths Science share most of their lectures with me, with the exception of Mathematical Modelling (which we don't do!), and we do Micro and Macro Economics in First Year, which they don't. It gets more specific from Year Two onwards.

The exemptions in UCD come from modules. For example, in first year, there are only two modules which count DIRECTLY to our exemptions - Microeconomics and Macroeconomics - the combined result will be used to determine one of my possible exemptions - CT7: Economics.

Again, doing a particular course does not gurantee you exemptions - there is a noticeboard in the Actuarial/Statistics department of UCD which shows each student in the graduating class of 2010 and which exemptions they got. I'd say about 1/3 of the class got all of them, with the remainder getting a large amount of them, but not all of them.

For the 9th exemption, it is calculated differently. They use a system called the Actuarial Average, which involves all your grades for the other modules that contribute to exemptions being considered. Different modules are weighted each year - nobody knows how they weight them until they do. Thus, it is quite difficult to get all of them, unless you are consistently of a very high standard.

Check out the website www.actuaries.org.uk - it is an interesting read to find information on the actuarial profession. I'm a first year in UCD, feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

marglin

The main difference between DCU and UCD, as has been stated, is the CA1 exemption. If you're sure you want to be an actuary then this can make quite a difference.

Each professional exam takes on average a year to pass out of college, there is alot more work involved in getting the exams straight up as opposed to getting the exemption, the exams are just harder than the college ones.

The other main difference is how they do work placement. As far as I know DCU is simply click to put forward your name. UCD is similiar enough except we have to contact the employers directly(advertisements are posted straight to our blackboard though). I don't know what the record at DCU is like but UCD have never failed to place someone in the ten years they've been doing placements which is quite impressive.

Somebody mentioned the block exemption also. As far as I understand, based on what's been relayed to us, if you have a gpa of 3.5(B+, 65%+ avg) over all the exemption modules you get all of them. Mind you this is all at the discretion of the Faculty/Institute, that can change. Also they weight the subjects differently and you won't know what exemptions you have until you graduate.

I supposed i'm a little biased, but UCD is a very good college and not denigrating DCU(also a good college) it is better known abroad. As for the 'social climbers' thing i guess it's true they're there but the place is so big you really do pick your friends here. Im a 3rd yr actuary and I have to say while it gets frustrating sometimes with the more difficult maths I've enjoyed every minute of UCD.

tinkerbell

The main difference between the DCU actuarial course and the UCD actuarial course is that in DCU - it is more maths based. UCD is more economics & finance based. So I wouldn't say that the UCD course has the better reputation - the DCU course is a lot more technical and as a result, I've heard people say that it is actually harder. Yes the exemptions are the same (except for CA1 in UCD) but the extra modules you have to do in DCU are all maths ones, bar a few.

Also, DCU had the actuarial course first in the country!

I would recommend DCU anyway - it's a wonderful college and the lecturers there are brilliant.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

tinkerbell wrote: »

The main difference between the DCU actuarial course and the UCD actuarial course is that in DCU - it is more maths based. UCD is more economics & finance based...the DCU course is a lot more technical so I would say that it is harder.

Can you cite anything to back this up?

tinkerbell

Sean_K wrote: »

Can you cite anything to back this up?

I can only tell you of what the course content was like when I was doing the course and when friends of mine were doing the UCD course. They (in UCD) were in with the E&F people for a few modules, whereas we were in with the Math Science people for all of our extra modules.

I have heard some people say that because the DCU course is more maths-technical based that that is why it can be thought of as "harder". It depends though what you prefer. If you want a degree which has some focus around the Economics side of things, then the UCD course might be more preferrable to you. If you want a degree which has more pure maths around it, then go for DCU.

I don't know what the course module differences are like now though. They could be the same as previously or they could have changed since. In DCU, your extra modules were all maths based whereas I think in UCD you have a bigger choice of options which include a lot from E&F.

tinkerbell

DCU module content:
http://www.dcu.ie/registry/module_contents.php?function=4&programme=ACM

UCD module content:
http://www.ucd.ie/students/course_search.htm

At the end of the day, you want to get exemptions. It's just your extra modules that you need to consider as that is where the courses differ.