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Conference rusure::math

Title:Mathematics at DEC
Moderator:RUSURE::EDP
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2083
Total number of notes:14613

1225.0. "Actuary" by --UnknownUser-- () Sat Apr 21 1990 23:47

T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
1225.1Picking up in the middle of the conversationVMSDEV::HALLYBTwin Peaks Municipal Software WorksMon Apr 23 1990 13:3112
    That was an idea I had for a long time, since I enjoy statistics.
    For one thing the Society of Actuaries didn't publicize things very
    well; you're supposed to take the first test at the end of your 2nd
    year in college.  I never even heard of the process until I was a
    senior and going on to grad school.  There was also a problem with a
    war in Vietnam, a low draft number (66), and that II-S deferment.
    
    I think I might have taken a shot at actuaryship (?) if I had had
    advance warning -- starting the first semester in college -- of just 
    what the process was.  There was nothing at my school, San Jose State.
    
      John
1225.2why I am not an actuaryCSSE::NEILSENI used to be PULSAR::WALLYMon Apr 23 1990 16:0512
Was this topic meant to be a reply to another topic?

Anyway...

When I was in high school, the society of actuaries distributed a test which all
the good math students took.  I did not do all that well, which is the first
reason.  Second, there was no talk of $90K (or even its 1960 equivalent), just 
a lot of guff about how important actuaries were to Western Civilization.  
Third, I was dead set on being a Scientist (with the upper case) then, and
no other career interested me.  Fourth, I very foolishly regarded statistics
as tedious and dull.  Even allowing for the fact that back then computers had
vacuum tubes and calculators had hand cranks, this was naive of me.
1225.3HPSTEK::XIAIn my beginning is my end.Mon Apr 23 1990 18:334
    There were the days when we were young,
    And drunk with Nobel rum.
    
    Eugene
1225.4IMHO:CHOVAX::YOUNGCuppa Jo and a donut?Tue Apr 24 1990 04:149
    Well my college DID offer the test, I DID know about it and I WAS
    well aware of the big-time money associated with it.
    
    BUT...  knowing what I did then about statistics and how actuaries have
    to apply it, I considered it nothing more than second-order accounting
    (read ...BORING!).  I know a lot more about it today, but unlike
    others,... I *STILL* think that it is BORING!
    
    --  Barry