Actuaries are professionals who help businesses assess the risk, cost and impact of future events such as death, sickness, injury, disability, or loss of property. Actuaries have a deep understanding of mathematics, statistics and business management. Actuaries help leaders and consumers make their strategic decisions and assess their future financial risk.

Career Opportunities

Actuaries are in demand. They work for businesses with a financial focus, including insurance companies and benefit consulting firms. Actuaries are also employed in banking, investments, government, energy, e-commerce, marketing, enterprise risk management and predictive analytics. The job of an actuary consistently appears among the top jobs in the rankings of 200 jobs by CareerCast’s Jobs Rated Almanac based on such factors as work environment, income, hiring outlook and stress.

The NSM Career Success Center is an important resource for students pursuing STEM and healthcare careers. Career professionals are available to provide strategies for mastering job interviews, writing professional cover letters and resumes and connecting with campus recruiters, among other services.

Marketable Skills

Review the marketable skills for this academic program.

Training and Advancement

Actuaries achieve their full professional status by passing a series of actuarial examinations sponsored by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS).

Actuarial Science at UT Dallas

The University of Texas at Dallas Actuarial Program is recognized as the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Center of Actuarial Excellence (CAE), the highest level of SOA recognition for universities. The Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science degree program is administered through the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The program is crafted for students to receive a well-rounded education by completing courses in actuarial and data science, mathematics, statistics, accounting, finance, economics, and computer science. All students are prepared to take seven actuarial preliminary exams administered by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS). Students are offered classes required by the SOA for Validation of Educational Experience (VEE) credits in economics, accounting & finance, and mathematical statistics.

Summer Internships

Students in the UT Dallas actuarial programs are encouraged to hold internships and participate in networking events throughout their college career. UT Dallas location is a tremendous advantage for the UT Dallas actuarial science students. Dallas is a major hub for most insurance companies and actuarial consulting firms. Actuarial firms like WillisTowersWatson, AON, Mercer, Milliman, Liberty Mutual, Lewis & Ellis, National Life, SwissRe, OptimumRe, Transamerica, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Globe Life, Cigna, and USAA are proud sponsors and employers UT Dallas actuarial students.

Recent Rankings

College Choice ranks UT Dallas No. 9 in its 35 Best Actuarial Science Degrees.

Value Colleges ranks UT Dallas No. 47 in its Top 50 Best Value Bachelor’s of Actuarial Science Programs 2018.

Quick Facts about the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

UT Dallas’ School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics offers degree programs for undergraduate and graduate students in biology, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, and physics. In addition to regular coursework, undergraduates are encouraged to participate in research alongside faculty and graduate students. Together with its world class departments, the school also hosts the renowned MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute and the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences that developed the mass spectrometer that discovered water on Mars.

• Established in 1975
• Six departments
• More than 3,200 students
• 30 degrees offered
• Alumni include a Nobel Prize winner, a NASA astronaut, and numerous faculty fellows of the National Academy of Engineering and American Association for the Advancement of Science

Degrees Offered

Bachelor of Science: Actuarial science, biochemistry, biology, biomedical sciences, chemistry, data science*, geosciences, mathematics, molecular biology, physics

Bachelor of Arts: Biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics

Master of Science: Actuarial science, bioinformatics and computational biology, biotechnology, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, molecular and cell biology, physics, statistics

Master of Arts in Teaching: Mathematics education, science education

Doctor of Philosophy: Chemistry, geosciences, mathematics, molecular and cell biology, physics, statistics

*Joint program between the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Certificates

• Data Science
• Genomics
• Geophysics
• Quantum Information
• Certificate in Biomedical Sciences (CBioMed)

Teacher Certification

The UTeach Dallas program offers students the opportunity to complete the requirements for high school teacher certification along with their regular BS or BA degrees.

Fast Track to Graduate School

The Fast Track program enables exceptionally gifted UT Dallas students to include master’s level courses in their undergraduate degree plans. Students who meet the requirements for admission to graduate school, and the minimum GPA requirement for their major, can take up to 15 semester credit hours of approved graduate level courses in their senior year to use toward completion of both bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  

To take graduate courses in the Fast Track program upper-division undergraduates must have completed 90 semester credit hours and petition their associate dean for permission to take graduate courses.