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BCom/BSc or actuarial studies/finance? (1 Viewer)

asdwx23

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BSc (Advanced Mathematics) / B Commerce or actuarial studies/finance?
I'm gonna do my hsc 11 weeks later.i'm doing ex1 and ex2 maths and aiming at ATAR 97+. i really love maths(at least i love what i'm doing now),so i wanna do something relevant.i thought actuarial would be a great choice but "do NOT do actuarial studies in uni" scared me a bit.
any suggestions?
 

ascentyx

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DO ACTUARIAL STUDIES IN UNI!!

i do it and i think it's awesome, ignore that fag :)
 

Studentleader

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Pure mathematics or applied statistics will get you further into finance than actuarial sciences. I'd do an undergraduate degree in pure mathematics then do a post graduate course/diploma in a more financial field.

You should talk to someone who teachs some of the quant subjects at UNSW (even though they probably won't reply) about job prosperity - IF they say you can get a job after honours and have reasonable evidence ontop of you being 100% sure you want to work in financial mathmatics go for it. If on the other hand they think you will still need a masters degree or a PhD I believe that doing a pure mathematics course will give you a better understanding of mathematics in general.
 

108796

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the whole 'do not do actuarial' thread was a huge conspiracy thread created by actuarial students initially on 4chan and now on BOS to prevent more and more students doing actuarial to reduce future supply and increase salaries.

Go do it. I heard its boring but not as hard as everyone percieves it to be.
LOL 4CHAN?!!!

HAHAHAHHAHA

i heard theyre a fucking bunch of virgin geeks or something

NO im not from 4chan. NO im not trying to prevent kids from doing actuarial (coz most of the retards get fucked over anyway). and NO im not trying to reduce supply to increase salaries (its gonna be high enough anyway)

WHY DONT YOU TRY TO BACK UP WHAT YOU JUST FUCKING SAID. WHAT IS MY 4CHAN HANDLE? WHAT THE FUCK IS 4CHAN ANYWAY?

THE ONES WHO ARE CUT OUT TO BE ACTUARIES WONT BE SCARED BY SOME THREAD ANYWAY

and not as hard as everyone perceives it to be? are you fucking out of your mind? there is some deep shit in there, it owns 4u maths in terms of level of difficulty (in some 3xxx subjects at least)

FYI the thread was just an emotional rage when i was studying at 4am and SICK OF NOT UNDERSTANDING A CONCEPT AFTER READING OVER IT FOR THE FIFTH TIME (i think it was B+D processes)

hahahha 4chan

EDIT: BTW asdwx23, i did ok last semester, AS WILL EVERYONE WHO IS CUT OUT FOR IT. by having more kids do actuarial studies, it does not affect me in anyway. it takes a top kid to beat me, and if hes a top kid, he's doing actuarial studies regardless of some thread. IM JUST TRYING TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF RETARDS WHO TRY TO DO ACTUARIAL STUDIES. if you ever doubt you want to do it, you're *probably* not cut out for it. i know kids who were passionate about actuarial studies, *thought* their maths was strong, are averaging 65 in the easier/average subjects, and getting 55 in the hard ones.

EDIT 2: PASSED 10K VIEWS ON MY THREAD. POP THE CHAMPAGNE!
 
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108796

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DO ACTUARIAL STUDIES IN UNI!!

i do it and i think it's awesome, ignore that fag :)
you're in first year dude. its a fucking blast

i averaged 90 in first year without fucking trying (and thats 10 marks above a HD).

first year actuarial studies is exactly the same as first year finance, you havent felt anything yet buddy. just wait til 3rd year, or if you're at ANU, 2nd year 1st semester, you'll get a taste of what its like to really THINK, and not just bash out some equations/theory
 

velox

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dark.deceptionz, while your marks maybe good, your attitude towards others is pretty shit. It might help to stop prancing around like a princess.
 

108796

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dark.deceptionz, while your marks maybe good, your attitude towards others is pretty shit. It might help to stop prancing around like a princess.
what if you got accused of conspiring to get rid of actuarial students to increase salaries or decrease competition or whatever. consider this viewpoint: if more people came in, obviously these people will be a lower intellect in general, so the smarter kids would look smarter, the more talented look more talented, and the brilliant shine even brighter.

and especially on 4chan, you kidding me? i hadn't heard of it until a few days ago when SWIM told me about it

and trust me, half the actuarial cohort are retarded. but thats ok, if more incompetent kids come in, 2/3 of the cohort can be retarded. i don't mind.

to OP, in regard to the discussion, com/sci is a big moneymaker (say a major in finance in commerce, and a major in financial maths for science); as is actuarial studies/finance. you gotta remember that an actuarial degree is more than 2/3 of a finance degree anyway, and a finance degree is 3/5 of an actuarial degree

maths requires a higher level of abstraction; it's somewhat beautiful in its purity. it teaches you to think deeply about simple things, and there are many applications of pure maths to the real world (although this is not the main focus)

imo, both are great ways to make money

the difference between actuarial studies and finance is that actuarial studies focuses on insurance applications: this is where a lot of the difficult stuff is, and is probably completely irrelevant to a trader.

most kids who do actuarial studies don't want to be actuaries; and quite frankly, who does? but actuarial studies gives you so many skills; and teaches you how to THINK and ADAPT, whereas there is less of this in a quantitative finance degree.
 

velox

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what if you got accused of conspiring to get rid of actuarial students to increase salaries or decrease competition or whatever. consider this viewpoint: if more people came in, obviously these people will be a lower intellect in general, so the smarter kids would look smarter, the more talented look more talented, and the brilliant shine even brighter.

and especially on 4chan, you kidding me? i hadn't heard of it until a few days ago when SWIM told me about it

and trust me, half the actuarial cohort are retarded. but thats ok, if more incompetent kids come in, 2/3 of the cohort can be retarded. i don't mind.

to OP, in regard to the discussion, com/sci is a big moneymaker (say a major in finance in commerce, and a major in financial maths for science); as is actuarial studies/finance. you gotta remember that an actuarial degree is more than 2/3 of a finance degree anyway, and a finance degree is 3/5 of an actuarial degree

maths requires a higher level of abstraction; it's somewhat beautiful in its purity. it teaches you to think deeply about simple things, and there are many applications of pure maths to the real world (although this is not the main focus)

imo, both are great ways to make money

the difference between actuarial studies and finance is that actuarial studies focuses on insurance applications: this is where a lot of the difficult stuff is, and is probably completely irrelevant to a trader.

most kids who do actuarial studies don't want to be actuaries; and quite frankly, who does? but actuarial studies gives you so many skills; and teaches you how to THINK and ADAPT, whereas there is less of this in a quantitative finance degree.
Umm well we are talking about actuaries here. Not doctors, research scientists or engineers. Nothing real special about actuaries. And there is not that much about trading that can be learnt at uni anyway.
 

ascentyx

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you're in first year dude. its a fucking blast

i averaged 90 in first year without fucking trying (and thats 10 marks above a HD).

first year actuarial studies is exactly the same as first year finance, you havent felt anything yet buddy. just wait til 3rd year, or if you're at ANU, 2nd year 1st semester, you'll get a taste of what its like to really THINK, and not just bash out some equations/theory
sorry but none of ur 'it's going to get so hard ur going to kill yourself' propaganda scares me. i'll just study more and more as the difficulty increases. anyways i never said actuarial was easy, i'm just saying so far i enjoy it.
 

Cookie182

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Umm well we are talking about actuaries here. Not doctors, research scientists or engineers. Nothing real special about actuaries. And there is not that much about trading that can be learnt at uni anyway.
I learnt that I shouldn't trade.

that is, the market is almost efficent, technical analysis and fundamental analysis are a costly waste of time and I should be happy being a passive investor with an index fund.

Oh how uni crushes dreams of abnormal profits...
 

Studentleader

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I learnt that I shouldn't trade.

that is, the market is almost efficent, technical analysis and fundamental analysis are a costly waste of time and I should be happy being a passive investor with an index fund.

Oh how uni crushes dreams of abnormal profits...
Bat flu in America? Buy shares in pesticides!
Hurricanes in America? Buy shares in helicopter transformation companies!
Earthquakes in the Middle East? Buy shares in window repair companies!
Swine flu? Buy shares in Tamiflu!

Trading is only hard when you start looking at "will x or y give me the best return" and risky business.
 

108796

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according to my economics lecturer,

all (competitive) firms earn 0 profits in the long run

thats pretty pessimistic, and i don't understand why

anyone enlighten me on this concept?
 

Studentleader

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according to my economics lecturer,

all (competitive) firms earn 0 profits in the long run

thats pretty pessimistic, and i don't understand why

anyone enlighten me on this concept?
Assume marketpower ~ profit, consumers are rational blah blah blah

Firm A = $100m profit @ time t, assume 100% of market power
@ t+1 Firm B takes 50% market share, profit = 50% each
@ t+2 Firm C takes 33% market share, profit = 33% each
@ t+inf Firm .......... 0% market share, profit = 0% each

Aslong as a company is making a profit another company will want to enter that market - profit falls from both loss in market share and price wars (firms will lower prices to attract customers.)
 

108796

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Assume marketpower ~ profit

Firm A = $100m profit @ time t, assume 100% of market power
@ t+1 Firm B takes 50% market share, profit = 50% each
@ t+2 Firm C takes 33% market share, profit = 33% each
@ t+inf Firm .......... 0% market share, profit = 0% each

Aslong as a company is making a profit another company will want to enter that market - profit falls from both loss in market share and price wars.
ty
 
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according to my economics lecturer,

all (competitive) firms earn 0 profits in the long run

thats pretty pessimistic, and i don't understand why

anyone enlighten me on this concept?
'profits' here refer to something different to what accounts call 'profits', i.e its refering to revenue minus oppurtunity cost.
Thus if firms in some market are earning positive (i.e>zero) economic profits, other firms will enter to the market in an attempt to 'get a piece of the action', this increases the supply of whatever the firms are producing, and thus decreases the price of the commodity, which decrease revenue...thus in the long run equilbrium all firms in any given market will earn zero economic profits. Note that this assumes free entry and exit into the market.
(and keep in mind its just a model,i.e doesnt actaully happen as nice in reality)
 

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