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Actuarial and Financial Maths UCD

  • 24-01-2014 6:55pm
    #1
    Blue giant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭


    I'm currently in fifth year in school and maths is my favourite subject. I got 98% in my Christmas test and find it quite easy so far at higher level. I was thinking of doing this course but was wondering if actuarial work wasn't for me would I be able to find a job in another field such as investment banking as I hear this also a good sector to get into if you're good at maths. Would this course then be as good as the likes of economics and finance also in UCD. Thanks in advance


Comments

  • #2
    sock puppet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,586 ✭✭✭sock puppet


    Blue giant wrote: »
    I'm currently in fifth year in school and maths is my favourite subject. I got 98% in my Christmas test and find it quite easy so far at higher level. I was thinking of doing this course but was wondering if actuarial work wasn't for me would I be able to find a job in another field such as investment banking as I hear this also a good sector to get into if you're good at maths. Would this course then be as good as the likes of economics and finance also in UCD. Thanks in advance

    There are some areas of investment banking where maths is used quite a bit. No matter what subject you do it'll be difficult to get hired in the area, though if you're thinking about it at this stage you'll probably be ahead of most candidates when it comes to applying. To be honest though I think a career is an actuary would be far better. You'll get lots of extra little perks that investment bankers don't, such as "weekends".


  • #3
    Blue giant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,336 ✭✭✭Blue giant


    sock puppet wrote: »
    There are some areas of investment banking where maths is used quite a bit. No matter what subject you do it'll be difficult to get hired in the area, though if you're thinking about it at this stage you'll probably be ahead of most candidates when it comes to applying. To be honest though I think a career is an actuary would be far better. You'll get lots of extra little perks that investment bankers don't, such as "weekends".

    Would I maybe be better just doing a maths degree in trinity if I'm not 100% sure I want to be an actuary. Would I be able to get other jobs with the actuarial degree?


  • #4
    gleesonger
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166 ✭✭gleesonger


    Blue giant wrote: »
    Would I maybe be better just doing a maths degree in trinity if I'm not 100% sure I want to be an actuary. Would I be able to get other jobs with the actuarial degree?

    If you want to go down the Actuary route, don't do the Trinity course as;
    1) It doesn't give you any exemptions (the CTs) which take about 2/3 years to get through the profession.
    2) If you do a maths course (pure/engineering/...) there is a risk that no insurance company would take the chance in hiring you. I have meet a few people this has happened to.

    If you do decide to do actuary do the DCU,UCD,Queens course they all give exemptions for CT1-8.


  • #5
    Pythia
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,469 ✭✭✭Pythia


    gleesonger wrote: »
    If you want to go down the Actuary route, don't do the Trinity course as;
    1) It doesn't give you any exemptions (the CTs) which take about 2/3 years to get through the profession.
    2) If you do a maths course (pure/engineering/...) there is a risk that no insurance company would take the chance in hiring you. I have meet a few people this has happened to.

    If you do decide to do actuary do the DCU,UCD,Queens course they all give exemptions for CT1-8.

    As someone who works as an actuary and didn't do a degree in Actuarial Science, I would disagree. Many employers are very happy to take on people with no exemptions. In fact, some prefer it as they feel that exemptions don't help much with actually doing your job, yet they have to pay you more. In the UK, it is unusual to have many exemptions.

    You would need a strong result in whatever degree you take (maths, eng, financial maths, etc) to be considered however. 1st class hons is probably what is required.

    An actuarial degree will certainly help with the exams, however, with a bit of effort you can still qualify fairly quickly with no exemptions (I'm on my last exam of 15 and only failed one once).


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