DCU and Actuarial Maths

rage against the leaving

Hoping to do this next year, if not then the common entry. Just have a few q's.

Anyone doing the course what's the workload like? Hours per week?

If you do the common entry, do you transfer to the Avtuarial maths in second year, and if so how difficult is it to get in?

Will be hoping for campus accommodation, what would be recommended for the best social life?

And finally, in what companies do people generally do their INTRA? Is it well paid?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

JemimaPD

Anyone doing the course what's the workload like? Hours per week?

Actuarial Maths is not all that bad. I'm personally not doing that course but my room mate is and she thinks its grand. You have Calculus, Economics, Linear Maths, Computing and Maths experience. She says that the first few weeks are a little tough until you get used to it. For first year its roughly 25hrs per week including Tutorials.

If you do the common entry, do you transfer to the Avtuarial maths in second year, and if so how difficult is it to get in?

Not sure about the swapping from common entry. Contact the Department their number is on the DCU website.

Accommodation

We both live in Larkfield (2 Bed Apt) and its not too bad but note its basically your own bedroom, shared bathroom a Tiny Kitchen and 2 common room with a small tv that has to be shared by everyone on the floor. But the more friends you make the better the experience. ** Join as many clubs and societies as you can when u get here - its the best fun ever

Intra

Intra module is for Semester 2 in 3rd year. Usually it would be in the Finance Sector but there has been other areas. When You get to 2nd or 3rd year they give all the details out but my room mate is only in first year so she doesnt have to worry about it just yet.

jennyq

I'm in third year of Actuarial Maths this year. It's not an easy course but that's why it's such a well-recognised degree If you just do the work, particularly at exam time, it's manageable. It sounds like an obvious thing to say but you should really like maths if you're going to do this course. Although there is some variation, particularly in first year with Economics and Computing, it's almost completely focused on maths so unless you like maths, you'll probably get sick of it quite fast.

There's 7 modules in first year- 3 full year-long ones and 4 that just last a semester (2 each semester). You can get a full list of modules each year here: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/module_contents.php?function=4&programme=ACM
Hours are about 21/22 in first year, but this decreases as you progress. This semester I had about 17 hours including tutorials and practical. Generally modules are assessed largely on exams (about 75%/80% usually) with 20%/25% continuous assessment (which can be a class test halfway through the semester, a project, etc.) but it varies from module to module.

People in common entry switch into their streams in third year. There are around 10 places for common entry students in the actuarial stream. There are about 30 in Common Entry starting out, but not all of those would make it through to third year so more than 1/3 would get to go into Actuarial if they wanted. It would depend on how many in the class pick each stream how hard it would be to get your choice.

One of the advantages of the course is that it's not too difficult to find a place for Intra. Most of the employers are insurance companies or actuarial consultancies. Examples of companies who hired this year were Irish Life, Aviva, Zurich, Towers Watson and others. I'm pretty sure everybody in all streams in my year, or the vast majority at least, have gotten a job at this point which wouldn't necessarily be the case with other courses.

As regards accommodation/social life I'd definitely recommend living on campus for first year anyway. It's not luxury accommodation but realistically that's not what being a student is about. It's the best way to make friends as you're surrounded by people in the exact same position of you and it makes it easy to get involved in all the events going on around campus. If you don't get campus accommodation, other specific student accommodation like Shanowen is also good as it's very near DCU and also a great spot to meet people.

If you have any more questions about the course or DCU in general ask away

rage against the leaving

Thanks for the replies.

Regards the course, can you afford to miss many lectures? I'm fairly good at catching up on things on my own, with sport in school I miss a few classes a week but manage to keep up. Is attendance compulsory to lectures and tutorials?

And with accommodation, is it true Larkfield is full of heavy drinkers?

andyman

rage against the leaving wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Regards the course, can you afford to miss many lectures? I'm fairly good at catching up on things on my own, with sport in school I miss a few classes a week but manage to keep up. Is attendance compulsory to lectures and tutorials?

And with accommodation, is it true Larkfield is full of heavy drinkers?

Myth. There are a good few alright but there's only a select few that would drink most nights of the week.

I hung around with a few drinkers last year but in that group was 2 footballers and a couple of hurlers who knew when to stay off it, and they did.

The first couple of weeks will be hectic with drinking alright. It will die down somewhat though.

I'd recommend Larkfield. It's overpriced and a ****hole but I had great craic there last year. Living in Hampstead this year and it's nowhere near the same.

carlowboy

1st year- Very easy, enjoy yourself.

The rest of the course: Very hard, very very very hard. Like very hard. Be prepared to miss out on a good few nights out that mates who don't do actuarial maths will enjoy.

As for Intra, pretty easy to get an internship compared to other course, there's currently very high demand for trainee actuaries due to Solvency II, although I'm not sure how this would effect someone graduating in 2015.

jennyq

rage against the leaving wrote: »

Regards the course, can you afford to miss many lectures? I'm fairly good at catching up on things on my own, with sport in school I miss a few classes a week but manage to keep up. Is attendance compulsory to lectures and tutorials?

Attendance isn't compulsory, there are a couple of modules where tutorial attendance counts for like 5% but that's the closest thing. I really wouldn't advise missing many lectures though. You could probably get away with it in first year alright but after that it's very hard to get your head around things you missed on your own while still keeping up with what's going on in lectures. I know people who play with different DCU teams on the course though who've managed while missing the odd lecture due to games and stuff and I've been heavily involved in extra-curricular stuff myself too. Once you try to avoid missing any more lectures than absolutely necessary and get any notes you miss you should be grand.

Like other posters said though, the workload is higher than for some other courses. You'll find you'll be more busy at exam time than lots of others but during the semester you won't be under as much pressure as people who have a lot of continuous assessment due, which is nice in a way but lack of CA can make it easy to let things slide until two weeks before exams too if you're not careful!

As for the Larkfield thing, it is basically a building with 150 first year students living in it so there's always going to be a few who are out every night, but it's not an issue really. It quietens down as the semester goes on. Worst case scenario is if you're sharing the apartment with one of party animals and it's really affecting you, but you can always request to be moved.

tinkerbell

rage against the leaving wrote: »

Regards the course, can you afford to miss many lectures? I'm fairly good at catching up on things on my own, with sport in school I miss a few classes a week but manage to keep up. Is attendance compulsory to lectures and tutorials?

No you cannot afford to miss any lectures. It is a hard course and it is important that you are there to hear the lecturer explain things, and also in the actuarial and maths science courses, the notes are usually all written up on the board. So unless you want to spend the rest of your days running around photocopying notes, etc. then I would attend the classes.

Grudaire

tinkerbell wrote: »

No you cannot afford to miss any lectures. It is a hard course and it is important that you are there to hear the lecturer explain things, and also in the actuarial and maths science courses, the notes are usually all written up on the board. So unless you want to spend the rest of your days running around photocopying notes, etc. then I would attend the classes.

Well thats a lie, some lectures you do need to attend most lectures but other lectures....Particularly some of the subjects that are based 100% off the CT Notes.

If you have an aptitude for Maths, keep up with the work, and make sure to get any note you miss you can afford to miss lectures. In general sport in DCU is arranged outside normal college hours, games and competitions may overlap with college though.

Don't oversell how hard our course is :pac:

tinkerbell

Cliste wrote: »

Well thats a lie, some lectures you do need to attend most lectures but other lectures....Particularly some of the subjects that are based 100% off the CT Notes.

If you have an aptitude for Maths, keep up with the work, and make sure to get any note you miss you can afford to miss lectures. In general sport in DCU is arranged outside normal college hours, games and competitions may overlap with college though.

Don't oversell how hard our course is :pac:

I'm not overselling how hard the course is. It is hard. Some people go in there thinking it'll be all plain sailing and you can miss tons of lectures and just catch up easily like other courses. I'm just trying to prepare the OP so that the OP is not in for some big shock.

Maybe now some of the exemption subjects are based completely on the CT notes - there was a lot of differences between the CT notes and the DCU course work for some subjects back when I was doing it - so in that case, I would advise going to your lectures. If it's completely on the CT notes though I can see why some people would think there's no need to go. But that said, if you're doing the subjects through the Institute, there are tutorials, and a lot of people need a tutorial to pass. So therefore I would advise going to the lectures.

It's a really good course to do though and the career prospects are absolutely wonderful. I am so so so so so so so happy I chose actuary as my career. The rewards are great, but you work damn hard for them.

Grudaire

I'm in final year right now, I just think that it's completely unfair to scare potential students away because you make the course seem so hard that "you cannot afford to miss any lectures." There's lots of people who successfully finished the course while being very active in sports or college life.

I have missed several lectures/days every year for a variety of reasons. Varsity competitions tend to overlap with college. First and Second year second semester I took a week to compete in a handball competition in America. (Intra interviews also get in the way) but it's no big deal. My grades have been unaffected.

OP, it's not an 'easy' course, but staying on top of the work it's very doable.

tinkerbell

Well Cliste, we both have our own opinions, differing opinions - but both are valid!

Anyways, best of luck in your final exams in a few weeks!

canister94

i was hoping to do this course aswell maths is my favourite subject but at best il come out with a c1.is this course very strenuous or would i get through it if i put in the work which i would be prepared to do

jennyq

canister94 wrote: »

i was hoping to do this course aswell maths is my favourite subject but at best il come out with a c1.is this course very strenuous or would i get through it if i put in the work which i would be prepared to do

You need at least a B3 in Honours to be accepted I'm afraid.

daviekelly123

Ye and if you get the B3 will we still be able for it?