classes to take

[vinhdizzo]

Hi all, I didn't know in which specific forum to post this in, so I apologize to the moderator if they have to move it.

This is my last year in college. I am debating whether to take some graduate stats courses at my insitution (UC Irvine). Classes up for toss is the intermediate stats theory series, an applied stats series (1st: Linear Models, 2nd: Categorical Data, 3rd: some other stuff), and a biostatistics course.

Would taking these courses help me on my way to becoming an actuary, either through the exam process or in practice? Any suggestions?

I read posts that say i should take classes that satisfy VEE so i dont have to worry about that later on. Thing is my school has no classes approved, so i dont really know what to take. For econ, i passed the AP Microeconomics test in 2003 with a 4, so i skipped the first 2 quarters of econ at my institution, and took the third quarter (Macro) to finish it off. Would anyone know if this would count as VEE if i applied?

For the Corporate Finance, i took an Econ class(1Quarter class) called corporate finance this summer. How do the SoA/CAS look at classes when determining VEE credits? Course description? The class i took just covered some basic interest stuff, annuity, perpetuity, common stock, perferred stocks, financial markets, cost of capital, investment portfolios, etc, all at a VERY introductory level.

I will take Econometrics this year, so i suppose it'll count as the applied stats course?



Also, reading on websites, i see that programming knowledge is a good thing in practical actuarial work. This summer i took a C++ course at a community college. I am debating whether i should take more programming courses (or learn them myself), either more C++ or Visual Basic, or other suggested languages. I talked to some Comp Sci people and they say VB is/will be dead in the future as it is not as powerful as other languages, but i guess thats in the Comp Sci industry. What about in the actuary field?

I hear a lot about Excel, but how well should i know it? I used it before, but What are some of the things that i *should* be able to do on Excel in actual actuarial practice? Just dont know whether i should take some Excel classes at the local community colleges. Also, what about MS Access.?

SORRY for the very long post, i didnt know that it would be this long until i finished typing.

THANKS all for the help.

[Maine-iac]

VEE is very new, so I can't help you much there. It might behoove you to ask if your college will apply to have some of their courses approved for VEE.

I'd contact the SOA directly for guidance with the VEE questions, after you have checked out whatever info is published on the site. Or ask those questions separately down in the VEE section of the forum, where the folks currently dealing with VEE issues are hanging out.

RE: programming. In a typical actuarial entry level job, you will use primarily Excel and Access. (There are exceptions, but this is the most common software you will be using.) The more familiar you are with these, the easier the work will be. (More time to try and figure out what you are doing when you spend less time trying to figure out how to program it. :) ) VB is the tool used to customize Excel and Access.

The CompSci people may very well be correct that VB is on its way out. But this is insurance. We won't be the last to let it go, but we certainly won't be the first either. Pretty much anything you use heavily in your first year or two on the job is likely to be obsolete in 10 years anyway. (I'm a whiz at Structured FORTRAN. :D) That doesn't mean it's not a productive thing to learn in the short term.

[silverfox]

Your classes don't count towards VEE unless they get approved by the SOA.
Here's the list of approved courses.
http://eande.soa.org/vee/VEEDirectoryReport.pdf

I didn't see UC Irvine on there so you might have to snoop around the SOA website to see how to get your courses approved.

[vinhdizzo]

Any thoughts on the graduate statistics courses guys? Would they be at all helpful in practicing actuarial work?

[Mobile Actuary]

Linear models could give you a leg up on occasion. I can't comment on the others.

[JTBenson]

Any thoughts on the graduate statistics courses guys? Would they be at all helpful in practicing actuarial work?

I took Bayseian Econometrics which helped a lot with Credibility Concepts. Any Bayseian course would be beneficial.

[vinhdizzo]

I'll look into Bayesian course offererings then.

[SouthOfSanity]

A class on Stochastic Processes (Markov chains, brownian motion, Poisson process) could probably make your life a little easier with Exam M.

If I were you, I would also try to get your university to apply to have the relevant courses approved for VEE credit. I believe you cannot do it individually, you would have to get your university to submit the application to approve the courses for VEE. Then only can you as an individual apply for credit for those VEE-approved courses. I would also cross-check with SOA to see what their requirements are for courses to be approved for VEE because I assume your school's department, as in any bureaucractic institution, might be a little lackadaisical when dealing with situations that are out of the norm for them such as this. They might come back to you with the question "What do we need to do?"

[Late Registration]

If I were you, I would also try to get your university to apply to have the relevant courses approved for VEE credit. I believe you cannot do it individually, you would have to get your university to submit the application to approve the courses for VEE. Then only can you as an individual apply for credit for those VEE-approved courses. I would also cross-check with SOA to see what their requirements are for courses to be approved for VEE because I assume your school's department, as in any bureaucractic institution, might be a little lackadaisical when dealing with situations that are out of the norm for them such as this. They might come back to you with the question "What do we need to do?"

Are you sure a student at a university cannot submit courses to be approved? I never read anything where a student cannot.

[SouthOfSanity]

Are you sure a student at a university cannot submit courses to be approved? I never read anything where a student cannot.

I checked the website again. Sorry, my bad. I was going off based on memory. Apparently, "if the educational institution does not intend to submit an application to have the course/educational experience approved, a candidate may gather the required documentation (course description and syllabus) and submit a course approval application directly."
Source:
http://eande.soa.org/vee/approved-courses-experiences-for-vee.html

[vinhdizzo]

Course desciption and syllabus is provided by the school if you request them? Do they mean the syllabus your professor hands out or do they mean the syllabus provided by the school?

[SouthOfSanity]

You'll have to contact SOA for more information.

[twig93]

The CompSci people may very well be correct that VB is on its way out. But this is insurance. We won't be the last to let it go...

My company will probably be THE last to let it go. We still employ COBOL programmers.