What are my chances?

[Sleepy]

It sounds like you haven't found a career you really like, then, if the only thing you enjoy is "watching youtube." If you read OPs posts closely, you'll see that he loves Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (?), already owns real estate, and is looking for something he enjoys that will also pay (more) bills. Clearly enjoyment is an important priority in his search.

There is no career I like. I am truly happy doing nothing.

Everyone who knows me will totally back me up on this.

How ever, I am not lazy in the sense that I will live off the government, I do intend to work and be a functional member of society, I would just prefer to do nothing.

Agreed. I'd say about half the people I talk to in the actuarial track are happy with their work (because they just want simple-minded number crunching that's secure and pays well), and the other half are miserable and only stay for the money if they stay at all.

I haven't heard about any crying yet. Out of curiosity, why was your coworker so miserable that she broke down in front of everyone, and what is she doing now?

My former co-worker went on to be a math teacher. I don't know exactly why she was miserable because I was only there for 2 months, but she was very unhappy.

I only took the first two exams (Probability and Financial Math), and I can say with 100% confidence that if you *really* understand the material (which any second-year math major should) and take all the practice exams, you should pass without too much trouble. It's just like prepping for the GRE quant section (only with more advanced material): if you take all the practice exams available and keep a cool head during the test, you should get an 800. Maybe they've made them much harder in the past three years?

I also took FM and P and passed both.

The underlying material is not extremely difficult, but the level of difficulty of the questions is pretty high.

I ended up doing absolutely nothing like what I studied in my actuarial internship. Not only that, but I felt I had no decision making impact. Nothing like what I thought the profession was.

Ok, in this field that means getting a PhD. An MS simply won't cut it if you want "decision-making" rather than number-crunching. Unless, for example, you go into business and have strong ambitions and a keen entrepreneurial instinct.

and I agree with you 100%, in other fields a PhD is definitely not necessary if you want to do more than number crunching, but in this field I heard time and time again that it is.

[coffeeintotheorems]

There is no career I like. I am truly happy doing nothing.

Wow, man. I'm sorry. That sounds very depressing. Why bother with higher education at all, then? Why not work a minimum-wage job and then dick around on the internet or play WoW and Halo? Or do you have expensive tastes?

I've known many people like this (the "Peter Gibbons's" of the world, if you will), but none of them had serious higher education. I want to blame the dopamine addictions caused by television and video games, coupled with bad schooling and bad parenting that keeps people like you from really having the opportunity to explore something worthwhile that they love.

I do intend to work and be a functional member of society, I would just prefer to do nothing.

What is your motivation to be a "functional member of society?" Morals? Duty? Guilt? Or have you even asked yourself this question yet?

I also took FM and P and passed both. The underlying material is not extremely difficult, but the level of difficulty of the questions is pretty high.

I disagree, but I also took P in November 2007 and FM in June 2008 and have no idea if and how they've made the test harder. The P exam seemed really straightforward, but then again I only got an 8. Maybe I made too many careless errors.

My experience on FM was:

1) Take associated course (with practice quizzes) to learn the basics,

2) Drop out of course due to boredom and (real) work

3) Let three months pass without studying

4) Wait until the week before the exam

5) Say "Holy sh-- I'd better do something!"

6) Take ALL the practice exams the week before

7) Go into the exam, answer 30 out of 40 questions easily with half an hour left to go

8) Guess on the remaining questions (on weird options and legal issues)

9) Pass with a 7 based solely on the material I knew, by answering questions that were EXACTLY like the practice questions.

I ended up doing absolutely nothing like what I studied in my actuarial internship. Not only that, but I felt I had no decision making impact. Nothing like what I thought the profession was.

A common error, both in actuarial work and in basic finance jobs (so I hear.) (Yes, OP, finance can be boring; I have no idea what your friends are telling you.) I definitely learned this the hard way. Again, once you get to be VP you get to make decisions, but that's pretty far down the road.

[Sleepy]

Wow, man. I'm sorry. That sounds very depressing. Why bother with higher education at all, then? Why not work a minimum-wage job and then dick around on the internet or play WoW and Halo? Or do you have expensive tastes?

I've known many people like this (the "Peter Gibbons's" of the world, if you will), but none of them had serious higher education. I want to blame the dopamine addictions caused by television and video games, coupled with bad schooling and bad parenting that keeps people like you from really having the opportunity to explore something worthwhile that they love.

What is your motivation to be a "functional member of society?" Morals? Duty? Guilt? Or have you even asked yourself this question yet?

I usually enjoy existential talk, but I don't see the point here.

I would like to point out that I am a female, do not play any video games, and do not have expensive tastes.

I have had great schooling and parenting and have no tv or video game addictions.

I don't buy into this capitalist notion that we have to pursue "something we love" and only then we can be happy functioning members of society, like proper working screws in a machine, and if we haven't found this "true calling" then we haven't tried hard enough, perhaps we should seek therapy, religion, or anti depressants.

I disagree, but I also took P in November 2007 and FM in June 2008 and have no idea if and how they've made the test harder. The P exam seemed really straightforward, but then again I only got an 8. Maybe I made too many careless errors.

My experience on FM was:

1) Take associated course (with practice quizzes) to learn the basics,

2) Drop out of course due to boredom and (real) work

3) Let three months pass without studying

4) Wait until the week before the exam

5) Say "Holy sh-- I'd better do something!"

6) Take ALL the practice exams the week before

7) Go into the exam, answer 30 out of 40 questions easily with half an hour left to go

8) Guess on the remaining questions (on weird options and legal issues)

9) Pass with a 7 based solely on the material I knew, by answering questions that were EXACTLY like the practice questions.

I also took the exams around 08.

My experience was different from yours. I studied in an organized fashion. I did about 150 hours of studying divided into an equal amount of hours every day for about 3 months.

But each person is different.

A common error, both in actuarial work and in basic finance jobs (so I hear.) (Yes, OP, finance can be boring; I have no idea what your friends are telling you.) I definitely learned this the hard way. Again, once you get to be VP you get to make decisions, but that's pretty far down the road.

Eh, I make decisions for the company right now as the company math person and I'm not the vp and I've only been working here for over a year.

I have no real interest to work in finance, though I have worked in the field before as a number cruncher.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Sleepy

[coffeeintotheorems]

I usually enjoy existential talk, but I don't see the point here. I would like to point out that I am a female, do not play any video games, and do not have expensive tastes. I have had great schooling and parenting and have no tv or video game addictions.

This revelation about your gender doesn't change anything. A good half of the serious WoW, Halo, cartoon, tv drama, and metal addicts I know are female.

Despite my critical tone, I'm genuinely interested in what your motivations are. The people I know whose ambition is to do nothing in life are people I know personally; as such, I have never felt comfortable asking them point-blank why they are that way. I was hoping that through the relative anonymity of the internet, I could get an explanation from you. But I have no idea how to ask, since it seems I have nothing to offer...

I don't buy into this capitalist notion that we have to pursue "something we love" and only then we can be happy functioning members of society, like proper working screws in a machine, and if we haven't found this "true calling" then we haven't tried hard enough, perhaps we should seek therapy, religion, or anti depressants.

This notion has absolutely nothing to do with capitalism. If anything, it's the modern anarcho-socialists who frequently ask why people work jobs they dislike when there's so much life to be lived. (Note: those people fascinate me, in a good way, but I'm not yet one of them.) I don't want anybody to be a screw in the machine; if anything, unhappy work makes you just that. I'm also not a fan of antidepressants or therapy, and I'm not in a position to comment on religion.

[Fallen]

My friends are advising me to try to get into law school, but I feel that has less chance of happening than getting into a tier 3 stats program.

[Fallen]

After some thought, I figured I'd ask again, but hopefully, I'm being more realistic.

Other than the Canadian schools, I have noted a few lower ranked schools in the US that I can apply to. I'll add that my final GPA will probably be under 3.0, but I have 3-4 semesters remaining, and my grades are rising. I should be able to pull of 3.5 gpa the next 3 semesters (I know some of you will lol at that, but I've gotten what I have now by never studying, and rarely paying attention in class. When I do study/show up, I do well).

Schools:

Emory University in Atlanta- Applied Math

University of Rochester- Math

University of California- Santa Cruz- Applied Math

University of Miami-Math

George Mason University- Math

University of FLorida- Math

All of those schools are ranked lower than 60 except UofFlorida (59).

I'm only asking again because, after doing some research into the Actuarial field, jobs are incredibly difficult to get in Canada with a shite GPA.

Cheers

[Fallen]

TTT