Month: September 2017

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.

        Well, I went to an ALPFA presentation. For a while I couldn’t find the room at all, and when I thought I was late I realized they were waiting for the pizza to come and then they would begin. Took a slice of pizza and then they began, though I interrupted, not on purpose, because I didn’t know where the garbage was. Anyway, the purpose of ALPFA is to help students develop abilities that will most certainly be useful for their career. In this presentation, they explained how to do an interview right, how to connect with people that can help you progress in your career, and how to follow your if they keep contact with you. For interviews they told some pretty obvious stuff, such as keep a good posture, don’t look arrogant, speak loud enough, but other things weren’t as obvious, such as making the interviewers talk about themselves simply because they love to do that. They also mentioned to respect their time if they have many other people to talk to, or include those others in the conversation to show that you’re willing to work with strangers. For the follow ups or thank you letter they mentioned that you shouldn’t right away be asking for a position, and that you should be careful about giving names out. Instead, you should, well, say thank you, mention what yiu talked about before, and see if you can meet each other again. Well, I’d say that attending this made me think that there’s a lot I still don’t know, and a lot I will have to work on, and get involved into. But well, most likely I will get used to what I have to do, and thankfully I have friends that can advice me, and have already adviced me actually, about what I should do.

I decided to visit Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity here in Baruch. I went with a few classmates. I met a sophomore who I knew there, Isabel Zou. She told me what the fraternity was about and introduced me to some really cool people. As one of the 4 clubs/organizations I came to Baruch being interested in, coming to this meeting helped me get an impression of the fraternity that will ultimately mark my decision.

On Thursday September 6, I attended the general interest meeting for a business Fraternity. The name of this business frat is called Alpha Kappa Psi. During the general interest meeting, I got to meet many new people who were all friendly. There were a total of four speakers and they all gave very informative speeches about their career and passion. Each and every one of them also talked about their experience at Baruch and it motivated me to work hard so I can be successful like them. There were also food and drinks. They gave out dumplings which tasted amazing! I stayed for the whole meeting and without a doubt it was very informative and fun!