It's an interdisciplinary field. You're required to study Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, and Finance. Even a bit of Accounting. It's like there's overlap... you don't do everything a Maths or Economics student does.

Traditional applications are insurance (general, life, health), pensions, and investment. But qualified actuaries and those who have studied actuarial science sometimes venture beyond these fields into enterprise risk management, banking, statistics, and really any area where these skills may be used (casinos, airlines, energy suppliers) or where risk and statistics are involved. At the very least, they can work in Finance, but may have to explain their degree.

It's not uncommon for those in the field to possess a Master's degree (could be a requirement in Australia - and such degrees are available in the UK) but it's not always necessary. At the same time, there is no requirement for any degree, Bachelor's or Master's, in Actuarial Science unless you are qualifying in Australia (it's complicated, because they require some graduate education even if you're not awarded a Master's degree).

It's not unusual for Engineers to move into Actuarial Science, given their Mathematical ability. Economics and Finance can be difficult, but they are no match for Mathematics.

If in America, Malaysia, and the UK, you need to pass external exams (for which exemptions via a degree exist), so it doesn't depend on what degree you choose. It's good that you're interested in Engineering, and there's always Mathematics. Some people with Statistics or Economics degrees qualify, others may have more exotic ones.

That's a lot to take in and you haven't started your A Levels yet. You need Maths. For Engineering you want Physics and Chemistry, and Further Maths helps in both. The only required subject is Maths but the Engineering combo will boost any application.

Well, whatever you're studying at high school, it's gonna be different from the end of high school/6th Form/A Level. Whatever you study then is gonna be different from uni. Of course there'll be similarities, some of the foundational knowledge. But as a whole you won't know if you'll like it at uni.

Accounting can be really boring. If I asked you to open up a university level Maths, Statistics, Accounting, Economics, or Finance textbook, you might turn away in disgust. Very hard to tell.

You need to go far. Maths is very theoretical. Nevermind applications. You'll go through a lot of crap before you see Applied Mathematics. Engineering is less theoretical than Physics. You don't like Biology or Chemistry so health sciences, life sciences, or chemistry won't do.

If you really like systems, logic, then maybe Engineering or Computer Science type subjects will interest you. Do a bit of googling. Statistics can be quite boring too. In Maths you'll not have time to be bored as you'll be working your ass off.

Do you like construction? Building stuff? Cars? Machines? Computers?

Data systems? Excel?

Clearly you don't like labs, chemicals, microscopes, cells and that sort of stuff.

You said so yourself, Engineering. Physics or subfields like Astrophysics are less practical but you can explore them.

We are discussing Actuarial Science and it's pretty much an office-type profession but you can get into interesting things like project finance, funds management, hedge funds, like I said airlines, casinos, if you're lucky.

If you like Financial Modelling then you don't necessarily have to do Actuarial. If you're good at Maths, go ahead and study Maths, and eventually Mathematical Finance, Mathematical Modelling or Computational Science, or Computational Finance/Quantitative Finance/Financial Engineering. Since a lot of those are graduate level study.

Or you could start with Engineering. Because you need to be really smart, otherwise you need a qualification in Maths or Engineering to do FinEng/QuantFin later on.

There are also some MSc degrees, in case you prefer not to have full-on quant, since not all of these are.

It won't be exams for years, but you will have studied more, longer (and much harder stuff) than those 3 year Accounting or Finance people.

This is going to be more interesting than just modelling pensions or probabilities of accidents and lifespans. You can go into equities, equity derivatives, energy derivatives, currencies, precious metals, rates (fixed income), all manner of exotic and structured products. Very technical shit.

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Added on October 14, 2012, 2:41 amSome people do a Physics PhD and go on to a MS FinEng after! Which is bizarre since they are/should be already so good at Maths and they are a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics of all things. There are also those who start out with Actuarial, but eventually go and study a MS FinEng after many years, and get CFA and everything.

A hard cold truth for you, it's very difficult to enter the actuarial industry these days.
So, if you think studying Actuarial Science will guarantee you a well paid job, you are gravely mistaken. Even if you managed to enter the Actuarial industry, the pay is slightly above average at best, unless you pass papers very quickly.