Whether to pursue masters....

[ivanhoe30]

Hello,

I wish to pursue a masters degree in the statistics department from one of the American or Canadian universities. I am currently working in Employee Benefit valuations in India, and have cleared the CT series (8 papers) from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, UK. I enjoyed preparing for the exams and thinking about the concepts, but I have not had a formal classroom training in taking these exams and am largely self-taught in the areas covered. This is one reason I would like to study in a classroom environment where more rigor is imparted to the courses taught.

I have an undergraduate degree in commerce, and a masters in management studies in which I studied basic statistics. I had an opportunity to learn some statistics through the actuarial exams I studied for, and I have also passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst program.

This said, I am not quite sure whether to apply for a Masters in Actuarial Science, a Masters in Statistics or for that matter in any other discipline given my background.

As an aside, I am a bit concerned about my chances of obtaining suitable employment upon graduation. Do you think this is a valid concern? Also, considering that I am in my early thirties will I be discriminated against the younger candidates?

I would appreciate if you could provide some inputs on my questions and concerns. Thank you!

Regards,

[Viki2011]

Hello,

I wish to pursue a masters degree in the statistics department from one of the American or Canadian universities. I am currently working in Employee Benefit valuations in India, and have cleared the CT series (8 papers) from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, UK. I enjoyed preparing for the exams and thinking about the concepts, but I have not had a formal classroom training in taking these exams and am largely self-taught in the areas covered. This is one reason I would like to study in a classroom environment where more rigor is imparted to the courses taught.

I have an undergraduate degree in commerce, and a masters in management studies in which I studied basic statistics. I had an opportunity to learn some statistics through the actuarial exams I studied for, and I have also passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst program.

This said, I am not quite sure whether to apply for a Masters in Actuarial Science, a Masters in Statistics or for that matter in any other discipline given my background.

As an aside, I am a bit concerned about my chances of obtaining suitable employment upon graduation. Do you think this is a valid concern? Also, considering that I am in my early thirties will I be discriminated against the younger candidates?

I would appreciate if you could provide some inputs on my questions and concerns. Thank you!

Regards,

I think it is better to invest your time into getting an FIA or FSA rather than pursuing an MSc degree. Most actuaries have only BSs and FIA/FSA on top of that. Nobody cares about MSc in actuarial profession.

[poydcsv]

I think it depends on what applications of actuarial science interests you more, and which specialty you would like to have in the future. Taking from your CFA exams that you wanted to learn more about the financial side of things, I suggest you go to a graduate program in Financial Mathematics or Mathematical Statistics. A good program should rigorously cover Real Analysis/Measure & Integration, Stochastic Partial Differential Equations and Computational Mathematics topics. I think these are the theoretical fundamental areas if you want to really play around with options and other derivatives. One of the main difference I've observed while studying for both the actuarial exams and graduate school is that the actuarial exams is more focused on the HOW, while the graduate school teaches the WHY.

On the other hand, a graduate program in Actuarial Science will not be a good idea for you since I believe most programs are just suited for preparing students to pass the exams.

[ivanhoe30]

Thanks guys for your inputs!

I am leaning in favor of Masters in Applied statistics. I liked the course contents and I thought that it would allow me to work in the US. Since actuarial science and applied stats are not really unrelated, I thought that since I am working in actuarial domain in India, my chances of getting placed after a masters would be higher (either in a traditional applied statistician's role or as an actuary) as I intend to gain exemptions from the SOA as well. Also, actuarial science falls under the statistics department.

My primary concern was that employers are reluctant to grant visas to international students these days and I wonder whether the scenario would improve. It would be great to have your thoughts on this.

Regards,
Ivanhoe