Why Study Actuarial Science?

Many colleges have graduates who have become actuaries. What is special about actuarial science at Lebanon Valley College?

LVC has an established and respected program with graduates employed by more than 50 firms. Our graduates have earned professional designations, including 70 Fellows and 43 Associates of the Society of Actuaries or the Casualty Actuarial Society, and 28 enrolled actuaries. Many colleges claim to offer actuarial science programs. Lebanon Valley College is the only small, four-year liberal arts college with a large extended family of alumni in the actuarial community, having a sufficiently extensive curriculum to be listed by the Society of Actuaries as offering an Advanced Undergraduate Actuarial Science Program.

Our faculty includes an Associate of the Society of Actuaries who is active in the professional work of the Society of Actuaries and is a member of the VEE Administration Committee. LVC is among the first schools to adapt to the new actuarial education, program which became effective in 2005 and offers courses meeting all the VEE requirements.

Every faculty member in the Department of Mathematical Sciences is aware of the educational expectations of the actuarial profession. Our curriculum includes two courses in mathematical finance including one in the Theory of Interest, two courses in Actuarial Modeling, and a course in Construction of Actuarial Models. In addition to the regular curriculum, we periodically offer voluntary review seminars for preliminary exams P/1 and FM/2 and administer exams FM/2, M/3, and C/4 on campus.

All of this has resulted in an average of two actuarial examinations per graduate passed by the time of graduation. Lebanon Valley College has a growing actuarial community that includes more than 60 current students. This support group is an important ingredient in the success of actuarial science study at LVC. When you study actuarial science here, you become a part of our community. Most LVC actuarial science students have summer actuarial employment for at least one summer prior to graduation. Major companies recruit on campus for summer and full-time employees. During strong and weak markets, LVC graduates have maintained a nearly 100 percent job placement rate.

We have an outstanding Actuarial Science Program, and our two- year core mathematics curriculum for all math, computer science, and actuarial science students allows for easy accommodation of changes in career plans. LVC offers an outstanding Mathematical Sciences Program of which the Actuarial Science Program is one part.

Contact Dr. J. Patrick Brewer, coordinator of the Actuarial Science Program, if you have any questions or would like additional program information. He can be reached at 717-867-6082 or brewer@lvc.edu.