Preparing for a Career in the Actuarial Sciences
A Guide for Applied Mathematics and Statistics Majors
Computing
The computer is an essential tool to the mathematical scientist. For the actuarial scientist, the following skills are recommended:
- most important, spreadsheet applications, especially Excel.
- statistical package such as SAS,
- database applications and languages, such as Access and SQL,
- presentation software, such as Powerpoint, and word processing, and
- programming languages, such as Visual Basic.
Please note that mathematical skills are more important to the actuarial profession than computer skills, but computing competence will make you a stronger candidate for a job.