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actuary:courses

Course Information

Check the University Bulletin for listed courses in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Check the Course Schedules in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

Here is a summary of all related courses and their status. When you plan your schedule, pay attention to those courses that are not offered every semester.

Course No. Course name Semester Required/ recommended Prerequisites
224/225 Calculus I every BA and BS none
226/227 Calculus II every BA and BS 225
230 Honors Calculus every BA and BS (alternative to 226/227) 225
304 Linear Algebra every BA and BS 225
323 Calculus III every BA and BS 227 or 230
330 Number Systems every BA and BS 227 or 230
346 Intro. to Financial Mathematics every BA and BS 227 or 230
404 Advanced Linear Algebra spring only elective 304 and 330
447 Probability Theory every BA and BS 323
448 Mathematical Statistics every BA and BS 330 and 447
450 Long-term Actuarial Math I fall only elective 330, 346, and 447
452 Long-term Actuarial Math II every other spring elective 304 and 450
454 Financial Mathematics occasional elective 346 and 447
455 Intro. to Regression Models spring only elective 329 and 448
457 Intro. to Statistical Learning fall only elective 329 and 448
458 Time Series every other spring elective 448
472 PDE and Mathematical Analysis spring only elective 323, 330 and one of 324, 371, or 372
478 Real Analysis I fall only elective 304, 323, and 330
479 Real Analysis II spring only elective 478
Econ 160 Principles of Microeconomics every BA and BS none
Econ 162 Principles of Macroeconomics every BA and BS none
Econ 360 Microeconomic Theory every BS Econ 160, 220 or 221
Econ 362 Macroeconomic Theory every BS Econ 162
Econ 467 Economic Forecasting every elective (alternative to 458) ECON 362, 366 and 466, MATH 220 or 224/225
Fin 311 Financial Management every No required. May be helpful. Junior Standing and Acct 211, Econ 160 and 162, Math 220 or 224/225
Fin 322 Investments every No required. May be helpful.
Fin 324 Corporate Finance every No required. May be helpful.

Calculus

Calculus is a branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. A key notion is the passage to the limit: quantities that tend to ultimate values. The basic tools from calculus are differentiation and integration. The methods of calculus are essential to any modern science. Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers the following courses in calculus:

  • Math 224/225. Calculus I.
  • Math 226/227. Calculus II.
  • Math 230. Honors Calculus. Directed at students who already have credit for calculus 1 or even calculus 2 and a strong record of performance in mathematics (like a high score on the calculus AP exam). It is appropriate for strong and mathematically curious students ready to work hard. It can be taken instead of Math 226/227
  • Math 323. Calculus III.

Probability and Statistics

Many problems which an actuary has to deal with are contingent/uncertain events. Probability theory is the branch of mathematics that studies the assignment of probabilities to random events. Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers the following courses in Probability:

  • Math 447. Probability Theory: Counting techniques, independence and conditional probability, discrete and continuous random variables, special distributions, expected values and moments, multivariate distributions, conditional distributions, transformations of random variables, limit theorems. 4 credits. Offered both in Fall and Spring.

Another part of mathematics studying randomness is Statistics. Statistics studies the collection and analysis of data. Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers the following courses in Statistics:

  • Math 448. Mathematical Statistics: Random sampling, point estimation, t, chi-squared, and F distributions, sufficient statistics, minimum variance unbiased estimators, confidence intervals, tests of hypothesis, uniformly most powerful tests, Bayesian methods, linear models. 4 credits. Offered both in Fall and Spring.
  • Math 455. Introduction to Regression Models. This course covers the mathematical foundation and practical implementations of linear and generalized linear regression models. Topics include estimation and diagnostics of linear models, transformations of variables, model selection, polynomial regression, and logistic regression. The emphasis of the course will be on applications. 4 credits. Offered in Spring only.
  • Math 457. Intro to Statistical Learning. Statistical learning refers to a set of tools for modeling and understanding complex datasets. This course covers such topics as regression, classification, resampling, model selection, regularization, tree-based methods, support vector machine, principal components analysis, and clustering methods. It concentrates more on the applications of the methods and provides students with valuable hands-on experience. 4 credits. Offered in Fall only.
  • Math 458. Time Series: The statistical analysis of time series data. Autocorrelation; stationarity, basic time series models; AR, MA, ARMA; trend removal and seasonal adjustment; invertibility; spectral analysis; estimation; forecasting; introduction to financial time series and the ARCH model.

These courses fulfill the Applied Statistics subject and the Mathematical Statistics subject of the VEE requirements. Please see the VEE requirements for more information. These courses also cover partially the syllabi for CAS: Statistics and Probabilistic Models Exam, Construction and Evaluation of Actuarial Models Exam, Statistics for Risk Modeling Exam, and Predictive Analytics.

Financial Mathematics

Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers the following courses in Financial Mathematics:

  • Math 346. Introduction to Financial Mathematics: Accumulation function, simple and compounded interest, effective and nominal rates of interest and discount, the force of interest, level and nonlevel annuities and perpetuities, amortization, reinvestment, sinking funds, bonds, depreciation methods, short sales of stock, term structure of the interest rates, duration, convexity, derivative markets. The material will focus on the requirements for the Exam FM/2. 4 credits. Offered both in Fall and Spring.
  • Math 454. Financial Mathematics: Interest rate models, the principle of no-arbitrage, fundamental theorem of asset pricing, evaluation of derivatives, put-call parity, European put and call options, binomial models, Black-Scholes option-pricing model, American options, option Greeks, exotic options, lognormal distribution, diffusion process, Ito's lemma, simulation, and delta-hedging. The material will focus on the requirements for the Exam MFE. 4 credits. Math 346 and Math 447 are prerequisites of this course.

Actuarial Mathematics

Actuaries use sophisticated probability models. Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers the following courses in actuarial stochastic models:

  • Math 450. Life Contingency Models I: Survival models, life tables, life insurance, life annuities, benefit premiums. 4 credits. Offered each Fall.
  • Math 452. Life Contingency Models II: Benefit reserves, multiple life functions, multiple decrement models, Markov chains, Poisson processes. 4 credits. Offered in Spring. Availability depends on enrollment.

Economics and Finance

An actuary studies contingent / uncertain events which have financial consequences. Hence he/she must have a good knowledge of Economics and Finance. In addition, VEE requirements include microeconomics, macroeconomics, and corporate finance. The following courses deal with microeconomics and macroeconomics. They fulfill the VEE requirements on the Economics subject:

  • ECON 160. Principles of Microeconomics.
  • ECON 162. Principles of Macroeconomics.
  • ECON 360. Microeconomic Theory.
  • ECON 362. Macroeconomic Theory.

So far, to fulfill the VEE requirements on the Finance subject, students must take courses from the school of management (SOM):

  • FIN 311, Financial Management.
  • FIN 322, Investments.
  • FIN 324, Corporate Finance.

FIN 311 is open for registration for Harpur students in the Financial Economics major and the Actuarial major. FIN 322 or FIN 324 is not yet open for registration for students out of SOM. Please seek help from your advisor should you want to register for FIN 322 or FIN 324.

Other courses

Other related courses are ECON 466. Introduction to Econometrics; ECON 467. Economic Forecasting; CQS 112. Statistics for Management; ECON 442, Financial Economics.

For computing skills, students can take CS 105, which provides some help on spreadsheets such as Excel, and CS 110, which introduces students to programming using python as the language.

actuary/courses.txt · Last modified: 2022/07/18 13:03 by qiao