Author: Kat Betancourt

On 11/9 I attended the Baruch Majors & Minors fair. This may seem like an academic enrichment activity, but it is also a career enrichment activity. This is because my intended career (actuary) is very specialized. In order to become an actuary and progress in the field, I will have to take several exams over the course of 6-10 years. Since the actuarial process is complicated, I went to the fair to ask an actuarial science professor about what Baruch offers to students of my major. He said that the required courses for the major will prepare students for 5 of the actuarial exams. There are about 10 exams in total that I will have to take, so I am glad to know that my college will prepare me for half of them. Each exam is on a different mathematical subject e.g. probability, economics, statistics. As one passes more exams, they will take on different responsibilities in their job and will subsequently have a higher pay, more benefits, and move up in the corporate pyramid. These exams are administered by the Society of Actuaries (SOA). On the SOA website, there is a list of colleges that offer an actuarial science program. Baruch is listed as having “advanced curriculum” meaning that the school prepares students very well for their career ahead. As I was talking to the professor, he also notified me of internship opportunities through the Baruch Actuarial Science Society. I will need to pass at least 1 exam before obtaining an internship, so I asked him what year I will pass one and he said around sophomore year. This makes sense because next semester I will be taking economics 1001 and the following semester 1002, and these classes prepare me for the economics exam. I am excited to take more courses related to my major rather than ones I don’t really care about i.e. English and history.

On 10/7/17 I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In my global history class, museum visits are required, so I went with a purpose. We have to choose an artifact that relates to what we learned in class and then write an essay on it. I went to the Egypt section and looked at several ancient artifacts such as pottery, tablets with hieroglyphs, and statues. I hadn’t yet decided on what to choose, so I spent a lot of my time reading the information displays near the artifacts, learning a lot about ancient Egyptian culture in the process. I made my way to a room that only contained statues of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. I remembered learning about her in class, and I found her intriguing since throughout history we don’t often hear about women being in positions of power. I was impressed by the large size of the statues, since it was created in ~1500 B.C., when modern construction methods had yet to be invented. I chose a kneeling statue of Hatshepsut as my artifact because I could connect what I was viewing to my history lecture. Later on, when I write the essay, I will have to do additional research online since the minimum word count is 750 words and we didn’t spend too much time learning about her. After taking a picture of the statue and reading information about it, I perused other parts of the museum since I enjoy looking at art.

On August 31st I attended the general interest meeting for the Baruch Actuarial Science Society (BASS). This is the main club that I was interested in joining here at Baruch since I intend to major in actuarial science. At the meeting I learned about how to become an actuary, what actuaries do, what it’s like to be an actuary, internship opportunities, the actuarial exam process, and more. This was a very informative and important meeting since I’ve never met or talked to an actuary, so I had little idea of what it’s like even though I plan on going down that career path. The reason I want to be is an actuary is because I love math, finance, statistics, and I want a decent salary. The meeting confirmed that actuaries are heavily involved with mathematics and that their median salary is $100K+. The meeting also specified what classes to take in order to be on track in becoming an actuary, since you don’t even need a degree in actuarial science to pursue the career. This is because actuaries become accredited by taking various exams that span several years. So as long as you study and pass the exams, you can major in whatever you want (typically math or finance related, though). I’m glad I attended this meeting because they emailed me a ton of information relating to the career. I plan on using this information to build my resume and start internships during my college career. For example, actuaries should know how to use excel, VBA, and SQL which are programs used in the career. I can learn how to navigate these programs in my own time outside of class so that I will have a competitive edge over my peers. As stated in the meeting, internship positions aren’t easy to acquire, especially in NYC, since employers are looking for the best student they can find. BASS will be able to guide me as I start my actuary journey and I look forward to future meetings.

I didn’t take a picture of the meeting so here is a screenshot of information provided there.