Actuarial Studies

The University of Texas at Austin

  

This is the entry point for the Website of the Actuarial Studies Program housed in the Mathematics Department of the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin.

While there is far more information about the actuarial program available on this Website than in print, you can see the basic information on the actuarial program as a "pdf" file for printing. News and information on the actuarial program is published each Spring semester in the Risky Business newsletter on the program.


Actuarial careers

The job of an actuary has consistently been ranked by the Wall Street Journal’s Jobs Rated Almanac as the number one or two job in the United States. So what’s an actuary? Actuaries use mathematical skills to define, analyze, and solve business problems involving the cost of possible future events. [See What actuaries do for an elementary article that illustrates this by using business ideas and mathematical tools to examine how much money a person needs for retirement. And see the Be An Actuary Website for career information.]

Actuaries are employed by such organizations as insurance companies, financial institutions, consulting firms, industrial corporations, government agencies, universities, accounting firms, and labor unions. Actuarial work includes: projecting how a new auto-safety law will change insurance claims; investigating how life-insurance reserves and future premiums might balance future claims; estimating the benefit costs of a labor contract; analyzing investment risks; projecting financial costs of an epidemic; and so on.

Professional societies of actuaries administer a series of examinations as part of the certification system for persons wishing to qualify as an Associate or a Fellow as proof of their status as an actuary; while in college, most actuarial students will complete one or two Associateship exams---described in the material Professional certification and the UT program)---and most such students' programs should include classes that cover the content of four or five exams.

Any student possessing strong mathematical problem-solving skills and an interest in a business career should consider the actuarial profession. Recent UT-Austin actuarial students that have passed one or two exams have found actuarial jobs with starting annual salaries of about $55,000-to-$65,000 upon graduation.


Actuarial studies at UT-Austin

Actuarial studies at UT-Austin has a long and distinguished history of producing well-prepared students at both the undergraduate and graduate level, many of whom have become leaders of the actuarial profession.

Admission
All students enrolled and in good standing at The University of Texas at Austin are welcome to participate in the actuarial program by taking any actuarial classes for which they have the academic prerequisites. For information on admission to the University, contact the Admissions Office.

Faculty
The present Director of the program, housed in the Mathematics Department, is Dr. James W. Daniel (an Associate of the Society of Actuaries), a UT-Austin Distinguished Teachinbg Professor and the Paul V. Montgomery Centennial Memorial Professor of Actuarial Mathematics. Dr. Leslie Vaaler, the Buck Consultants Associate Director of Actuarial Studies, and Dr. Milica Cudina also primarily teach actuarial classes. Mr. Gustavo Cepparo teaches a computational regression and time series class for the actuarial program each spring semester.

Jim Daniel             

Jim Daniel, Leslie Vaaler, and Milica Cudina                 

Majors
While there are special actuarial options (see Degree programs) within the undergraduate and graduate Mathematics degrees, Actuarial Studies is also available as an informal concentration rather than an independent major and is therefore open to students in any major. Many students that already have an undergraduate degree choose to participate in the Actuarial Studies program as a non-degree-candidate or---at least formally---as a seeker of a second undergraduate degree; such students typically follow the same pattern of classes as do Math majors.

In the classification of U.S. actuarial programs by the Society of Actuaries, it qualifies as one of only about 70 Advanced Undergraduate programs and as one of only about 30 Graduate Education or Graduate Education & Research programs—thus providing a thorough preparation for entering an actuarial career.

Besides calculus, matrix algebra, probability, and statistics, four Mathematics Department actuarial courses plus two Actuarial Foundations courses taught by the Mathematics Department anchor the actuarial program; students completing those courses and passing at least one exam can compete well for actuarial jobs. Two other Mathematics actuarial courses, computing courses, Economics courses, Business courses, and public speaking compose the remainder of the concentration's core; students completing these would be even more competitive for actuarial jobs. Additional suggested courses provide further breadth and depth, especially for graduate students. See the recommendations for the actuarial concentration.

Because the program requires so much mathematics, many students choose to pursue an undergraduate or graduate degree in Mathematics. Alternatively, students can take these courses as electives and major in any other area. Finance, Accounting, Business Honors, Management Information Systems, and the Risk Management concentration are naturals in Business, for instance. Actuarial employers have hired students from the actuarial program that majored in such diverse fields as Computer Science, Psychology, Electrical Engineering, German, Botany, Music, Physics, and Art History. Students should seek advice from the Undergraduate Adviser of any field in which they are considering majoring as well as from Professor Daniel or Dr. Vaaler. No matter in what field students major, they must meet the requirements of that major in addition to the recommendations for the actuarial concentration.

Students
About 90% of the actuarial students are seeking undergraduate degrees in some major or an M.A. in Mathematics with a special actuarial focus. About 5% of the students are graduate students seeking a graduate degree in some area other than Mathematics. The remaining 5% are students who already hold an undergraduate degree in some area and are not seeking a second degree; rather they enroll in UT-Austin and enter the program in order to take the classes they need to prepare for actuarial exams and find entry-level actuarial jobs.

Support
The actuarial profession strongly supports our program. Professor Daniel works closely with the profession to help graduates of the program find entry-level jobs and to help continuing students find summer internships. And there is fairly extensive financial aid available, primarily for continuing students that have already established a record of success in the actuarial program.


Possible schedules for classes

There are as many possible schedules for taking actuarial classes as there are students—especially since actuarial students come to the program at various points in their education. Since the actuarial program is an informal concentration as well as a formal option under the B.S. in Mathematics and the M.A. in Mathematics, flexibility is possible in order to meet each student's needs and circumstance. The undergraduate class schedules sketched in the pages linked below would be ideal for an entering freshman already interested in becoming an actuary, but they should provide rough guidance for others as well—including for students who already have an undergraduate degree but are not pursuing a graduate actuarial program. The following links take you to sample schedules for undergraduate students that major in Mathematics (or are non-degree-seekers) and for undergraduate students that major in some area of the College of Business Administration, since these two groups constitute the majority of actuarial students. Other students should be able to get ideas for patterns of classes by seeing when the core courses appear in the sample schedules for the Mathematics or Business students. The final link takes you to information for students interested in a graduate actuarial program.


Relationships with the professional actuarial community

The UT program receives strong financial support and cooperation from many individuals and organizations in the professional actuarial community throughout the greater Southwest and elsewhere. We received gifts from about 60 individuals and businesses last year as well as support from such professional organizations as the Actuaries Club of the Southwest and the Southwest Actuarial Forum. A couple of dozen companies interview our job-hunting students each year.

We have been especially fortunate to benefit from the advice, support, and participation of the members of two advisory groups for the program. One---the Actuarial Studies Advisory Council---provides advice for the actuarial program on all its activities. The other---the Advisory Board of CBA Alumni in the Actuarial Profession---is composed of College of Business Administration (CBA) alumni of UT-Austin that are interested in encouraging CBA students to participate in the actuarial program. Students with questions about actuarial careers are encouraged to contact any of the listed members.

Actuarial Studies Advisory Council

  • Lillian Cho, ASA, Towers Perrin, Dallas, TX
  • Philip S. Dial, FSA, Rudd & Wisdom Consulting Actuaries, Austin, TX
  • Christian Goodman, ASA, Milliman, Dallas, TX
  • Serhat Guven, FCAS, EMB America, San Antonio, TX
  • Tim Heslin, FSA, AIG American General, Houston, TX
  • Brian Kasper, FSA, PhD, AEGON Direct Marketing, Plano, TX
  • Liane Latham, FSA, American National, Galveston, TX
  • Gagan Nanda, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Dallas, TX
  • Karen Nowiejski, FSA, Nova Pension Valuations, Houston, TX
  • Vi Phu, ASA, Towers Perrin, Houston, TX
  • Roger F. Ray, ASA, Dallas, TX
  • George Sanger, FSA, Hewitt Associates, The Woodlands, TX
  • Tammy Shelton, Buck Consultants, Dallas, TX
  • Tom Struppeck, FCAS, ASA, PhD, Longhorn Analytics, Austin, TX
  • Alan Taper, FSA, Hewitt Associates, Irving, TX
  • Catherine Taylor (Council Chair), FCAS, USAA Insurance, San Antonio, TX
  • Glenn Tobleman, FSA, FCAS, Lewis & Ellis, Richardson, TX
  • Gregory Young, ASA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dallas, TX
  • Valerie Zinzer, FSA, Rudd & Wisdom Consulting Actuaries, Austin, TX

Advisory Board of CBA Alumni in the Actuarial Profession

  • Bryan Avant, ASA, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Houston, TX
  • Wayne Barnard, FSA, AIG American General Life Insurance, Houston, TX
  • Frank V. Broll, Jr., FSA, American National Insurance, Galveston, TX
  • Mark Callahan, FCAS, X.L. Insurance, Hartford, CT
  • Rick Davenport, FSA, Deloitte Consulting, Dallas, TX
  • Allen Jacobson, Jr., FSA, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Atlanta, GA
  • Linda A. Konarik, ASA, Buck Consultants, Houston, TX
  • Richard Mallett, FSA, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Dallas, TX
  • Lorie Pate, ACAS, Tyler, TX
  • Matt Sicking, ASA, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Dallas, TX
  • Alan S. Taper (Board Chair), FSA, Mercer, Dallas, TX
  • Mark Trieb, FSA, Milliman, Dallas, TX
  • Gregory Young, ASA, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dallas, TX


The student experience

With fewer than 250 students participating, the program has a small and friendly feeling despite being imbedded in a huge university. The typical student will have the same instructors and many of the same classmates in four different classes spread over three or four years.

The students' Actuarial Science Club organizes talks ("What is a casualty actuary?"), panels ("How to interview for an actuarial job"), study groups for professional exams, intensive exam-prep review seminars, and the like. Its reception at the Actuarial Studies Advisory Council meetings lets the students and the influential actuaries that advise the program get to know one another.

The University of Texas Actuarial Alumni Association each semester organizes activites such as career-info panels and mock job interviews, allowing present students to meet with recent graduates and hear first-hand about their early work experiences.


Interested?

You can find a lot more information on various aspects of the actuarial studies program by exploring the hypertext links imbedded in the text of this document.

If you still have questions about the actuarial program or profession, contact Professor James W. Daniel, Director of Actuarial Studies, Mathematics Department, 1 University Station C1200, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-0257. Feel free to call him at 512/471-7168 or to drop by his RLM 11.174 office at the southeast corner of Speedway and Dean Keeton Street (formerly 26th Street); the most likely time to catch him in his office during the fall or spring semester is 9-11 a.m. Monday through Thursday. His electronic mail address is daniel@math.utexas.edu .