Ok lo.
So far, my SAM is accepted in Southampton (with 4k scholarship!), Heriot-Watt (2nd year entry!), UEA and high chance for City.
City people didn't give me a promise, but sweet word. LOL.
Didn't bother to ask LSE.

i didn't comment about other school
didn't u wanna go kent?
heriot-watt is a 4 year program if i am not mistaken
means u have to study 3 years too
no need so aggressive
i just comment wat i know
why u didnt reply my doubt of associate degree

You think I so free every thread I also check de meh. But I replied.
Kent not sure yet, they haven't told me if I can get in or not.

Well ... I just finish my spm last year ... planning to take actuarial science... so if I take ICPU then no chance in UK ark?

This is my guess la.
You still have chance if your percentage is good.
But, I must say, ICPU doesn't prepare students vigorously academically.
I met ICPU graduate doing Engineering but have no clue about complex number. Eventually, he deferred.

I mean no offense to ICPU. Even my SAM isn't very matched up with UK's syllabus also (Thank that I took Specialist Maths).

If you get an entry, and you wish to go, you have to be very well-prepared because the Maths maybe very far from what you have learned in ICPU.

But if you ICPU, try to go to Waterloo la, very famous for Actuarial Science.

waterloo is expensive than soton and it's very lc
i think they hv no exemption from the actuarial body also

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Added on May 6, 2009, 11:14 amif you are not free,what for u open thread and do research here
people give comment then u dont like
zzzzz

This post has been edited by kim0215: May 6 2009, 11:14 AM

Well, I think if you have some time, better check up the website of FIA or even Waterloo itself la.
Their BSc is accredited by FIA for 8 CTs exemptions.
They have two type of Masters, one for career changers and one for continuers.
For career changes, the 1.5 year course gives exemptions on 8 CTs and 2 CAs.
For continuers, the exemptions go up to ST or SA papers.

Waterloo is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, university offering Actuarial Science in the Northern America.

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Added on May 6, 2009, 12:02 pmSince when I said I don't like comments?

And, you can't expect a person to be standby 24 hours for his/her own thread right?

This post has been edited by tanjinjack: May 6 2009, 12:02 PM

so it's not SOA?
haha
i thought in canada is SOA
master only hv exemption????
watever lah
my fren who are going to there also not clear about this exemption thing,non of my business also

waterloo is best?haha
i would rather choose wisconsin madison if go waterloo

no need so aggressive about my reply~
u can't standby 24 hours but u can check back all the post what~~~

Canada has a board, called Canadian Institute of Actuaries, CIA.
I am not sure about if CIA itself accredits Waterloo's program or not, but my guess is they do.
Even if they don't, it doesn't matter.
CIA, FIA, SOA and some other actuaries society/association in other countries have signed a treaty. This treaty recognises the members (be it students, Associate, Fellow) across the societies. So, today you are an Associate in FIA, you go to CIA, they see you as an Associate also.

And, read my reply again regarding Waterloo's BSc.

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Added on May 6, 2009, 12:57 pmPardon me, Waterloo's Bachelor program is a BMath, not a BSc.

This post has been edited by tanjinjack: May 6 2009, 12:57 PM

i know,but u mentioned about 'MASTER'
so i was doubtful with ur post @@

Please allow me to ask a little question here.
What're the benefits to gain exemption after the technical Actuarial professional papers (eg CT for IOA/FOA) by pursue to master rather than collect experience by working for actuarial tasks?
I know that UK/US countries have a lot of actuary job-entry level, some companies may even provide study hours to assist you pass your exam. Study master and gain exemption for more further stage of papers will be advantage and more secure. But what i'm thinking is most of the job entry only require you to have some credited papers (let say 1 to 3), so if you manage to obtain 8 exemptions with degree level will be very excellent and delight employers.
To summarize my words, master in AS may only for those people want to do teaching or broaden the AS knowledge in a shorter period of time. Hope somebody can enlighten me.

Well to throw in my two cents regarding the issue above ...

My mother's friend's son is studying in University of Waterloo.
He went there with A Levels and initially declared a major, actuarial science.
But after 2 years he changed his major to software engineering. (He's on co-op a 5 year program, he worked and studies on alternate semesters and from his earnings alone, he manage to support about 2 years of his fees, his mom's very happy)

The reason he gave was that he didn't find sitting in front of a computer staring at spreadsheets and databases an attractive job prospect (apparently that's what actuaries do).
However, he did mentioned that University of Waterloo's Mathematics Department is famous in North America, not only is their Actuarial Science program reputable but their Computer Science program is one of the best there.

Canada is not under SOA.



No. The 1 to 3 papers are applicable in US but not UK.
US has less papers than UK.
From what I know, actuarial science students in US are encourage to finish 1 to 4 papers before graduation for ease of job hunting. UK is different (they have different number of papers and the 8 exemption for degree level is referring to the UK board, not US)
You got mix up regarding the two board.

Masters in AS allows professionals from other fields to break in into the risk management fields due to the exemptions given. There are students who after taking their undergrad in Actuarial Science going on to do masters for the sake of exemptions (I suppose they do not want to sit for the exams on their own, the exams after all have a reputation for high failure rates, see the connection?)

This post has been edited by Jyou: May 6 2009, 04:48 PM

Well, you are right that experience is a very important asset in actuarial job.
There are some employers prefer hiring students that pass the CTs on their own, instead of getting exemptions from an educational degree.

As said in my earlier post, there are 2 kinds of Master.


Hope this answers your doubt.


Yeah, they are among the three universities that Microsoft look for graduates, according to Waterloo themselves.
But they didn't do well in THES ranking, don't they?

Yeah Microsoft hires from Waterloo.
Lol most Canadian universities don't do well in world rankings, except for McGill and University of Toronto. I'm not sure why, perhaps the isolation up there?

But the good thing about Canadian tertiary education is that there's government regulation, not like US. The worst Canadian universities are not that bad, as compared to the worst of US universities. You're ensured quality education regardless of which university you attend.

Wow! I like this topic! Jinjack you have done a very thorough research on actuarial science course!!

Well, the actuarial science course in waterloo is said to be the best in the world. The uni itself is a considerably good uni, although I wont say best, but as I mentioned earlier, the actuarial science course there is regarded highly. Some insurance companies in Msia only hire interns from Waterloo uni. This was told by one of the companies.

Wisconsin Madison is a good uni too, but it is definitely not cheap to go there since it is a private uni. It has good rankings, but I would say that if comparing actuarial science graduates from both Wisconsin and Waterloo, the ones from Waterloo should be more sought after.
Again, you can do ADP 2 years programme in most of the colleges in Msia i.e. HELP, Inti etc and if you get considerably good results, Wisconsin is one of the universities on the list where you can transfer your credits too..

Coming back to UK actuarial science course. LSE's actuarial science is not as strong as City's. City's actuarial science graduates are more knowledgeable in terms of actuarial knowledge compared to some of LSE graduates. Of course i wont generalise this as a whole, but this is the experience one of my LSE actuarial graduate friends related to me, when she is working in the firm, the City graduates have a better grasp of actuarial knowledge. However City might not be as tempting as LSE in terms of global reputation, and this is the obvious reason why LSE would be chosen over City. If I had an offer from LSE and City, I would have chosen LSE too!
However LSE is said to emphasize more on graduate teachings. Undergraduate teachings does not seem to receive as much importance as research at graduate level. Try checking out the satisfactory of undergraduate students scores in the university rankings tables. Google them, and you would perhaps see that the score of LSE in this section is relatively lower compared to other uni, if I am not mistaken. I would say that City's teaching qualities has an edge over LSE.

Warwick MORSE is indeed quite a highly regarded course in UK. And to get into a four year course of Warwick MMORSE, you need at least a second upper class from your second year. Even if you are only doing 3 years MORSE, you can still gain about 3 to 4 exemptions from the professional papers, if you are doing exceptionally well in certain exams in MORSE that entitled exemptions. Warwick do not have generous scholarship though. There are only two scholarships relevant to us, namely the Malaysian scholarship, and MORSE scholarship.

oh ya! LSE is very generous in terms of financial bursary btw. haha! And it has a very huge presence of international student presence there, so it is not right to say that they are not open to international students. Well, which UK universities would be not open to international students?? Because we are the cash cow to them, as simple as that.

Honestly speaking, I would advise people to go to universities with better rankings although the course you want to do there might be second to another university whose ranking are not that great, but appears top in the course you want to do. Some employers in UK only targeted certain universities when it comes to recruitment. So my thinking is that even though if you are doing a course which is the top one in UK, but unfortunately in a not really prominent uni, you are going to miss out alot on the career fairs opportunities etc.

If you really want to go UK uni, especially certain uni like LSE (not only actuarial science course), ask the college education counsellors what modules are more preferable by LSE in terms of getting in. During my year of application, LSE asked for 3As as entry requirement, but they totally disregarded the "A" in Accounting. The 3As have to come from another three modules you do, not including Accounting. I am not sure how the entry requirement are like now.. but nor harm checking this out. Whats the point of doing Accounting if you want to go LSE, but LSE did not consider the A in this subject at all?!

Hope this shed a little light over everyone's doubt!

P/S: jingjack where are you doing your Mech Eng btw?

tabbycat,
That's a great comment, summarising quite some important points.
Are you in a position to comment more about the US system?
It's to me that more Malaysians are following the SOA instead of the IA/FA.

I am doing my Mech Eng in University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus. See my signature!

Warwick's MMORSE sounds the most impressive to me. I was checking it out several years ago too but the requirements are pretty high. If I'm not wrong, AAA for ALevels.

I have an acquaintance who graduated from LSE in Ac.Science but he decided not to practice it. Nonetheless, investing firms and banks there already grabbed him even before he graduated.

Jinjack unfortunately I am not really in the position of commenting about US system. I am a student at UK, well at one of the universities you guys mentioned, and everything I commented up there was what my friends in respective universities related to me, or I experience it myself. You can still practise Actuarial Science too even though you are doing Mech Eng. In UK, I feel that employers look for overall ability and personalities. These seemed to be more crucial to them rather then you having a relevant degree to the job they are recruiting i.e. accounting and finance degree for jobs in Big Four. This is stg very different from Msia employment.

Baoz, your friend must be really really outstanding to be grabbed by banks even before he graduated!!!!!! When did he graduate? Is he still working now? Mind to tell which bank is he working in??

My friend graduated from LSE Actarial Science (back to 3 years ago) and served Morgan Stanley for two years in their investment department. Redundant previously and now got a job in Holland (not sure the name of the bank. the redundancy was happend due to the credit crunch and the whole team of his was redundant)

Yes a lot of redundant cases but these banks are still taking in interns very actively though.. hmm