If you have an interest in both actuarial science and business, you might be wondering which would make for the better major. This post will show you advantages and disadvantages of each of them and help you to decide which would be better for you.
At a glance:
| | Business Administration | Actuarial Science |
| Payscale reported average pay | $66,127 | $67,014 |
| Ease of finding a job | Moderate | Moderate |
| Types of jobs you can qualify for | Project Manager Marketing manager Account manager Operations manager Financial analyst | Actuary Actuarial analyst Financial analyst Actuarial analyst Data analyst Actuarial associate |
| Difficulty of the major | Easy/Moderate | Hard |
| Key things to note | A general degree. This can make it difficult to qualify for specialized jobs that pay better. Can improve your job prospects by double majoring with something more specialized such as finance or computer science. Can make for a good minor. | Can be difficult to get an actuarial job at the entry level. Specialized for the actuarial career path. This makes it slightly easier to get an acturial job but harder to get jobs from other fields when compared with alternative majors such as statistics. Can improve your job prospects by getting a minor in another field such as computer science. |
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There are many things to consider when deciding between the two degrees. Also, there are other things to consider if you do decide to major in either of them such as what classes you should take.
Details about a degree in business administration
Below are some details about a degree in business administration.
Pay
According to Payscale, the average salary of a person with a degree in business administration is $66,127. However, you can expect entry-level positions to pay less than that. According to Payscale, an entry-level business administrator can expect to make $48,560.
Jobs
A business administration major will have you taking classes in a range of disciplines including business, finance, accounting, and economics. As a result, a business degree is a somewhat general degree that is not specialized for a particular type of job. This means that the degree can qualify you for a large number of jobs. However, you will often be less competitive than people who have degrees related to that specific job.
While it can be difficult to compete with people who have degrees related to specific job roles, you can improve your job prospects by getting internships, completing projects and learning skills related to the specific job that you are interested in.
Jobs that you can qualify for with a bachelor’s degree in business administration can include:
- Project Manager
- Marketing manager
- Account manager
- Operations manager
- Financial analyst
Difficulty
Overall, a business administration degree will usually be relatively easy when compared with alternative degrees such as finance, economics and accounting. The reason for this is that, being a general degree, you will not be taking many specialized classes that tend to be more difficult which other majors would include in their junior and senior years.
When compared with an actuarial science major, you can expect a business degree to be much easier.
Classes you can expect to study
In a business administration degree, you can expect to take the following classes:
- Marketing
- Accounting
- Management
- Economics
- Finance
- Business law
- Business ethics
- Business principles
You can also expect to have the option to take other business classes as your degree requirement and the ability to take any classes in your electives. It would help to consider what job you are most interested in and to choose your electives accordingly.
Alternative degrees
If you are interested in a business administration degree, there are some alternatives that you might also want to consider such as:
- Finance
- Economics
- Accounting
- Marketing
Things to consider
As mentioned above, a business administration major can be quite general which can make it difficult to qualify for specific jobs. With that being the case, it would likely help a lot to minor in another field that is more specialized such as finance or computer science. A double major would also be an option if you are willing and able to put in the extra time. Alternatively, you could major in the more applied field and minor in business administration instead.
Regardless, you will be able to drastically improve your job prospects if you learn skills related to the job you are interested in, take classes related to the job you are interested in, complete related projects, and get internships in that field.
Details about a degree in actuarial science
Below are some details about a degree in actuarial science.
Average pay
According to Payscale, the average pay of someone with a degree in actuarial science is $67,014. According to the BLS, the median pay of an actuary was 108,350 in 2019. The BLS also reports that the number of actuary jobs is expected to grow by 18% by 2029 which they say is much higher than the average across all jobs.
However, something to consider, is that it can take many years, after graduating, to become an actuary since there will be a number of additional exams to pass. Also, the job market at the entry-level is competitive.
Jobs
A degree in actuarial science will be specialized for becoming an actuary. This is good if you want to be an actuary. However, it can mean that it will make it more difficult for you to get jobs in other fields that you could have qualified for with a similar major such as statistics or applied mathematics.
Also, you can still get a job as an actuary without an actuarial degree. Degrees such as statistics, mathematics, applied mathematics and even physics can be just as competitive for the job role, depending on the classes you take.
However, there are many skills that you will learn in the major that will still allow you to qualify you for other job roles. This is mainly because you will be learning a lot about statistics. You should also learn how to program in Python, R and how to be proficient in Excel. This should help qualify you for “analyst” type job roles in particular and possibly data science roles as well.
Jobs that you could get with a degree in actuarial science could include:
- Actuary
- Actuarial analyst
- Financial analyst
- Actuarial analyst
- Data analyst
- Actuarial associate
Getting a minor in an applied field, such as computer science, could also help to broaden your job opportunities. Doing summer internships and completing projects related to the jobs you are interested in will also help a lot in improving your job prospects.
Difficulty
Actuarial science will involve a lot of mathematics, probability and statistics. As a result, actuarial science is not an easy major.
It will also be necessary for you to take additional exams in order to qualify as an actuary. It will even be necessary for you to pass some exams for an entry-level actuary position. These exams can be difficult and many people fail them every year.
Types of classes
The major will have you take courses from a number of different disciplines. Required classes you can expect to take will include:
- Calculus
- Linear algebra
- Two courses in calculus-based probability and statistics
- Computer science
- Economics
- Finance
- Business
- Actuarial science classes as available
Things to consider
If you are interested in becoming an actuary, getting an actuarial degree might not be a requirement. Instead, it might be more appropriate for you to get a related degree and to make sure to take the necessary classes to become an actuary. Also, it will be important to make sure to complete the necessary actuarial exams while an undergrad.
It might be the case that, half-way through your time as an undergrad, you will decide that you do not want to be an actuary. If you major in a more general quantitative subject such as math or statistics, it should be easier for you to transition towards a different field than with an actuarial major. If you do decide to major in a more general field, it will still be important to choose more employable classes and to complete personal projects so that you can be more competitive for specific jobs.
Something to be aware of is that actuarial science will focus more on applying traditional statistics techniques to smaller datasets. However, each year companies are acquiring larger and larger datasets. This is making machine learning techniques used on large datasets, in data science, more and more relevant each year.
Machine learning and big data is getting incorporated more into actuarial degrees and the exams. However, it would still help a lot to make sure to learn python, manipulation of big datasets using things such as the Pandas library and machine learning. So, that you can also be competitive for data science type roles.
One more thing to be aware of is that actuarial careers can have good job satisfaction because they have good pay, moderate working hours and low stress. However, they also tend to have low job meaning since most of the jobs will involve helping already wealthy people earn more money. Alternative careers, such as in data science, can allow you to have a more positive socially impactful role.
Reasons to choose a business administration major
Since a business administration degree is more general than an actuarial science degree it should qualify you for a wider range on jobs. However, the generality can make it less competitive for specific jobs. This is why it would help to make sure to take classes related to the job that you are interested in and possibly to get a minor in a more applied field such as finance or computer science.
An actuarial degree will involve a lot more math and statistics. Also, the junior and senior-level classes can be very difficult. As a result, you can expect an actuarial degree to be a lot more difficult and time-demanding than a business undergraduate degree. However, this can also mean that an actuarial degree will make you more competitive for mathematical job roles that tend to be better paying such as a data scientist.
Reasons to choose an actuarial degree
Actuarial jobs are commonly rated as some of the best jobs you can get. If you are absolutely set on becoming an actuary then getting a degree in actuarial science would be appropriate. In this case, it would help to try to minor in something else such as computer science since this will help to reduce your risk if you are not able to find an entry-level job as an actuary.
However, if you are not absolutely sure that you want to become an actuary, it would likely be a better option to get a related degree such as applied math or statistics and to make sure to take the relevant classes to become an actuary. I have written about actuarial science vs statistics here.
