Actuarial Science Program
An actuary is a business professional who uses mathematical skills to define, analyze, and solve financial and social problems and manage risk. Actuaries are employed by insurance companies, consulting firms, large corporations, and the federal and state governments.
LVC's actuarial science program provides students with the necessary background in math, economics, and finance to begin a career as an actuary, including 100 percent coverage of the Society of Actuaries' preliminary exam syllabi.
LVC actuarial science graduates enjoy a nearly 100 percent job placement rate. Many companies recruit on campus for paid summer and full-time jobs.
Professional success naturally follows from student achievement. We require students to pass at least one actuarial exam. In the last three years, students passed an average of 2.4 exams before graduating.
In 40 years, we've launched 70 Fellows and 43 Associates of the two actuarial societies and more than two dozen enrolled actuaries.
Our students' success stems from our emphasis on the learning process. Our students learn to extract technical information, master it, and then explain it. Employers seek our graduates because they are both articulate and technically proficient, a rare combination.
LVC actuarial graduates are employed by more than 50 national and Central Pennsylvania firms, including Aetna, The Hartford, The Chubb Group, ING, Towers Watson, Guardian Life, Conrad Siegel Actuaries, and Capital Blue Cross.
Most LVC actuarial science students hold paid summer actuarial positions, logging invaluable experience, making important networking connections, and earning excellent income.
The list below shows the relation between LVC courses and actuarial examination program of the Actuarial Societies.
|
Professional
Examination
|
LVC Courses
|
| P/1 |
MAS 111, 112, 113, 114; MAS 261; MAS 371; ASC 281 |
| FM/2 |
ECN 101, 102, 201; ASC 281, 385 |
| MFE/3F, MLC/3L, C/4 |
ASC 386, 481, 482, 472 |
The details of the actuarial science major are provided below.
Degree Requirements: Bachelor of Science with a major in actuarial science
Required courses:
ACT 161 Financial Accounting| Basic concepts of accounting including: accounting for business transactions, preparation and use of financial statements, and measurement of owners' equity. 3 credits. |
| An introduction to risk management in property/casualty and life insurance with emphasis on probability concepts. Prerequisite: MAS 112. 3 credits. |
| Measurement of interest, time value of money, annuities, amortization and sinking funds, bonds, capitalized cost, net present value, yield rates, yield curves, duration, immunization; derivative products including calls, puts, forwards, and swaps. Prerequisite: MAS 112 or 162. 3 credits. |
| Foundational aspects of computer programming. Algorithms and data; control structures; the design of small programs. Class and object basics. Uses the Java programming language. 3 credits. |
| The course examines how individuals and firms make choices within the institution of free-market capitalism. Individuals decide how much of their time to spend working and what to buy with the earnings of their labor. Firms decide how much to produce and in some cases what price to charge for their goods. Together these choices determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced in our economic system. Fulfills general education requirement: Liberal Studies Area 2 (Social Science). 3 credits. |
| This course extends the study of consumer and producer choices to discover how they affect the nation's economy. Macroeconomics deals with the economy as a whole as measured by the key variables of inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. Emphasis is on both Keynesian and classical theories and how they predict what monetary and fiscal policies can be used to affect these variables and reach national economic goals. Fulfills general education requirement: Liberal Studies Area 2 (Social Science). 3 credits. |
| A calculus sequence for department majors and other students desiring a rigorous introduction to elementary calculus. Fulfills general education requirement: Liberal Studies Area 4 (Mathematics). 4 credits. |
| Second semester of a calculus sequence for department majors and other students desiring a rigorous introduction to elementary calculus. Fulfills general education requirement: Liberal Studies Area 4 (Mathematics). Prerequisite: MAS 111; Corequisites: MAS 113, 114. A student may not receive credit for both MAS 112 and MAS 162. 4 credits. |
| An introduction to college mathematics for potential mathematical science majors. 1 credit. |
| Second semester. Introduction to college mathematics for potential mathematical science majors. 1 credit. |
| Introduction to logic, set theory and proof techniques. Prerequisites: MAS 251 or ASC 281. 3 credits. |
| Multivariate calculus including partial differentiation, multiple integration, vector fields and vector functions. Prerequisites: MAS 112 or MAS 162. 3 credits. |
| A mathematical introduction to probability, discrete and continuous random variables, and sampling. Prerequisites: at least two of MAS 202, 251, and ASC 281. 3 credits. |
| An introduction to the mathematical foundations of statistics including sampling distributions, estimation, hypothesis testing, linear models and multivariate distributions. Prerequisite: MAS 371. 3 credits. |
Two of:
ASC 386 Mathematics of Finance II| Parity, binominal pricing, Black-Scholes pricing, hedging, exotic options, and interest rate models. Prerequisite: ASC 385. Corequisite: MAS 371. 3 credits. |
| An introduction to loss distributions and credibility theory with emphasis on actuarial applications. Prerequisite: MAS 371. 3 credits. |
| Survival distributions, life insurance, life annuities, benefit premiums and reserves, multiple life and decrement models. Prerequisite: ASC 385; Corequisite: MAS 371. 3 credits. |
| Multiple life and decrement models, expenses, individual and collective risk models, compound distributions, including applications. Prerequisites: ASC 385,481. 3 credits. |
Total of 46 credits.
The Course P/Part 1 or Course FM/Part 2 examination of the Society of Actuaries/Casualty Actuarial Society must be passed before senior standing is reached.
There is no Actuarial Science minor.
This curriculum covers about 95% of the material for the preliminary examinations (P/1, FM/2, MFE, MLC, C) on the Society of Actuaries and Casualty Actuarial Society examinations.
For students transferring into the Department of Mathematical Sciences after having completed two semesters of calculus, the MAS 111, 112, 113, 114 requirement may be replaced with MAS 161, 162, and one other MAS course numbered 200 or higher, which is not otherwise used to fulfill the requirements of the student's major and is approved by the student's advisor.