Majoring in Actuarial Studies?

[dankfrank420]

Hi guys, helping some Monash commerce people can help out.

I'm going into year 12 next year, and hope to achieve a high enough ATAR to enrol in the Commerce/Engineering double degree. I had a look through the Commerce majors, and actuarial studies caught my eye, so I have a few questions:

How difficult is it relative to Engineering maths?
Do most people who take the course pass?
Is it a heavy workload to taken co-currently with an engineering course?
How easy is it to transfer to a different major if Actuarial Studies is too difficult?

Thanks.

[Fraxyz]

How difficult is it relative to Engineering maths?

I'm not really familiar with engineering maths but I'd guess that it's at least on par. Though the two use pretty different branches of maths.

Do most people who take the course pass?

Pass sure, but if you want to pursue actuarial as a career you're really trying to get the exemptions for Part 1 from the Institute of Actuaries Australia. Getting an exemption requires a 70% minimum in quite a few subjects found here.
CT1, 2, 3, and 7 would have fairly high pass rates, but CT4, 5, 6, and 8 are much lower, I'd guess around 50%. If you miss an exemption you can take an exam through the institute so it's not the end of the world. Getting all of the exemptions takes nineteen subjects, more than the sixteen commerce units you're given in a double degree, but if you're focusing on engineering as a career then the exemptions are less important.

Is it a heavy workload to taken co-currently with an engineering course?

Commerce in general has a fairly light workload, so despite the extra difficulty of actuarial studies, the workload shouldn't be higher than a straight engineering degree.

How easy is it to transfer to a different major if Actuarial Studies is too difficult?

Pretty easy, a lot of the subjects needed are part of Finance or Econometrics majors.

[bobbyz0r]

A Part II exemption from Monash requires an honours year. So 6 years total with an BCom/BEng double. Something worth noting.

[dankfrank420]

Cheers for the answers guys.

So from the sounds of it becoming an Actuary is quite a length process?

[Special At Specialist]

Melbourne and Monash both have a very similar system for Actuarial Studies.
The thing to note about becoming an actuary is that you need to complete 3 parts:
- To get exemption from your part 1 actuarial exams, you need to do a 3 year BCom degree, majoring in Actuarial Studies, and score at least 70% on all your third year actuary subjects and some second year subjects too. Doing a major in Actuarial Studies is very restrictive and won't leave you much room for breadth for elective subjects.
- To get an exemption from your part 2 actuarial exams, you need to do an honours year and score at least 70% in all your subjects.
- You cannot get an exemption from your part 3 actuarial exams. You must do these at the Institute of Actuaries and you will generally do these exams whilst working full-time as an actuarial associate. Part 3 will probably take you a few years.

Once you've finished part 3, you will then become a fellow of the institute of actuaries (ie. a fully qualified actuary).

And yes, the fail rate / dropout rate for people doing an actuarial studies major is very high. But the good news is that you can change majors at anytime in first/second year, since most of your subjects will count towards a finance major and a few will count towards an economics/accounting major too.