Actuarial Studies

[monkeywantsabanana]

Hey guys !

So, i went to the expo today and talked to some of the people from Monash and Melbourne University..

I know that Melbourne University is fully accredited but Monash says they're just partly ?

I regret not asking for more info about this... so does anyone know if Monash can offers Actuarial Studies? If it does then what does it mean by being fully accredited and partly accredited?

[homosapiens]

As far as I know the Monash program is almost accredited, meaning you don't have to sit 2 of the 3 exams required to become a fully qualified actuary. As long as you take the correct subjects you'll be just as qualified as a Monash graduate as a Melbourne one since the Monash program is almost there.

[riv]

http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/ebs/student/undergrad/actuarial/faq.php#acc

[monkeywantsabanana]

So if a university is fully accredited, you don't have to sit the 2 of the 3 exams? (how many exams do you sit ? ) Whereas a university that is not fully accredited, you'd have to sit all of the 3 exams to become qualified ? (i.e Monash) ?

[mystikal]

So if a university is fully accredited, you don't have to sit the 2 of the 3 exams? (how many exams do you sit ? ) Whereas a university that is not fully accredited, you'd have to sit all of the 3 exams to become qualified ? (i.e Monash) ?

correct but monash is gonna get accredited soon so you shudnt have to worry about the exemptions since its most likely monash will get accredited by the time you do the course.

[monkeywantsabanana]

would you say doing it at Monash is better than doing it at Melbourne Uni or vice versa ? Any opinions ?

Do employers care where you do the course at ?

[jimmy999]

You'll need to take into account two things

1) The course is new at Monash so they are still probably ironing out any kinks in it whilst the course is well established at Melbourne

2) If you want to do a double degree, then Monash is your only choice.

They say doing a course in maths helps out a lot with actuarial studies, but you can do maths as your breadth at Melbourne Uni so don't do a double degree on that, only do it if you want to pursue other interests like physics or writing or history etc.

[monkeywantsabanana]

Thanks Jimmy.

Also - how does it actually work?

If a person chooses to do B.Comm, then do they have to do it for a period of time and then choose a major ? (for MelbUni)

[jimmy999]

As with most courses, in 1st year, you choose a 3 to 4 streams of subjects that you are interested in. Then you'd pick your major in 2nd year. Both unis, in their handbook outline the optimal path to take to do an Actuarial major. You'll find these on their sites

[mystikal]

personally i think Uni of Melb will be better if you want acturial purely because it is already established and has an exisiting reputation as victoria's main output of actuaries so most employers will think uni of melb might be more reliable. Also Monash having only just started this course recently they are still adjusting bits and pieces to fit accreditation. That being said it would just take time for Monash to get the stage which Uni of Melb is at in terms of acturial studies like reputation etc..

However, if u live close to clayton and u have a scholarship come to Monash, (uni melb is abit far + hard to  get scholarship) , coz acturial will be alrite by the time u graduate ! 

[tram]

I'll try not to be biased given the fact i go to Melbourne haha, having said that i had a chat with the founder of monash's actuarial student society the other day and he did a good job at making me seriously concider transferring to monash for a few hours....

1) If you're set on actuarial, defs go to Melbourne. It has a significantly stronger actuarial program that has been around for much longer. The subjects have been there for years and it's recognized a a better program. Monash was only accredited for part one exams a few months ago.

2) The set of exams that people are talking about are the three sets of exams that are required to become a fully qualified actuary (part 1, part 2 and part3- yes, i know very inventive) Doing a normal three year course (and getting sufficiently high marks ~75%) will gain you exemption from part 1 on the exams. At Melbourne if you do an extra honours year, you also get exemptions for part 2 exams, i don't think monash have their part two exams credited yet (pretty sure this is what they mean by only being partly accredited) Again, Melbourne has just been around for longer and got the program up and running for years already

3) As has been mentioned if you want to do a double degree, go to monash, this would really be the only reason you would want to choose monash to do actuarial

4) At monash i think actuarial studies is a degree, i.e. you're focussing on actuarial from the start. At Melbourne you would take the BCom and you would have to have an idea that you wanted to do actuarial from the start and pick you subjects accordingly and if you think it's not for you you then can change you major.

More info on subjects can be found under the "2011 student's guide" at http://www.economics.unimelb.edu.au/actwww/ugradCurrent.shtml

if you want the monash perspective on actuarial PM True Tears who's doing actuarial at monash and he can tell you how he's finding it

uni melb is abit far + hard to  get scholarship

just wanna point out that if you can get a scholarship to melbourne, they're insane (esp the Copland scholarship), let me put it this way, in the next 5 years, the faculty of business and economics is planning to raise $5,000,000 for scholarships JUST for commerce students...

Hope it helps

[mystikal]

i just realised can u do a double major of acturial and something else at melb uni? coz i know its possible at monash but im not sure for uni of melb.

[monkeywantsabanana]

Thanks for the responses guys! - much appreciated.

Tram - how are you finding the course? Hard? Easy? Moderate?
Are you a 'natural' at maths?

[luken93]

Thanks for the responses guys! - much appreciated.

Tram - how are you finding the course? Hard? Easy? Moderate?
Are you a 'natural' at maths?

Check out his scores

[monkeywantsabanana]

Thanks for the responses guys! - much appreciated.

Tram - how are you finding the course? Hard? Easy? Moderate?
Are you a 'natural' at maths?

Check out his scores

Haha - yea i see :O that's good as!

but did he work hard for it or he's just a genius (all in his head)?