2021-2022 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2021-2022 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Actuarial and Financial Mathematics Minor


Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Programs of Study

Actuarial and Financial Mathematics Overview


Careers in the actuarial and financial sectors have been in high demand, and are among the most lucrative. The set of skills required for such careers - namely, the analytical, statistical, and computational ability to determine and quantify risk - are easily transferrable to any number of professions within and beyond finance. They also provide a solid foundation for graduate studies in related fields.

Traditionally, those careers have been popular among mathematics majors. Indeed, many of our mathematics majors have found internships and employment in insurance and financial companies. Some pursued graduate degrees in Actuarial Science, or Finance, including Clark’s MSF.

Although careers in the actuarial and financial sectors require analytical and computational ability, they do not, however, require a full mathematics major. The Actuarial and Financial Mathematics (AFM) minor provides a clearly marked pathway to those careers for Clark students who may choose to major in fields other than Mathematics.

Insurance companies expect their actuaries to pass several exams to become first associates and then fellows of one of the two national societies for actuarial science. Indeed, these credentials are required to perform important actuarial functions such as signing legal documents, and therefore companies are heavily invested in hiring new actuaries who can pass these exams in a timely fashion. The first two exams are in Mathematics: the first in Probability and the second in Financial Mathematics, and these topics are directly covered in the AFM minor. To find actuarial employment at any insurance company, students generally need to pass at least the first exam and preferably the second exams as well. While already employed, actuaries pass the remaining exams.

Because of the AFM minor, Clark has been recognized by the Society of Actuaries (SoA) as a University with an Actuarial Program with an Introductory Curriculum (IC). For more information about the Actuarial career please visit

https://www.soa.org/Education/Resources/Actuarial-Colleges/actuarial-college-listings-details.aspx

Students who earn the AFM minor cannot earn a Mathematics major or minor.

If a student is interested in earning both the Data Science (DS) minor and the Actuarial and Financial Mathematics minor, each minor must contain at least 3 unique courses. This requirement may cause some AFM minor students to have to take an additional computer science or data science course in order to also complete the data science minor. The Data Science program will approve relevant extra courses on an as-needed basis.

 

Actuarial and Financial Mathematics Faculty


Amir Aazami
Li Han
Jacqueline Geoghegan
Gideon Maschler
Michael Satz, Director
Natalia Sternberg
Zhenyang Tang

Return to {$returnto_text} Return to: Programs of Study