Actuarial Science Club opens doors academically and professionally

When Karen Liu first arrived at Illinois as a freshman, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated. But when she and her parents mulled over the top job listings for mathematics majors, actuarial science caught their attention.

Like most, Liu wasn’t familiar with actuarial science. But she took a chance on it.

Now a senior, Liu has never been more certain that the field she selected was the right one, and being in the U of I Actuarial Science Club since her freshman year is a big reason why. She is now president of the club, which is well-regarded on campus for helping students understand the field and connect with potential employers.  

“Once I started to enjoy it and got in the club and met all the people, I thought, ‘Yeah, I think I can stick with this,’” Liu said.

The club was organized as a resource for the roughly 340 actuarial science majors on campus to meet other students in their field and make meaningful connections in the corporate world years before graduating. Through weekly social and networking events, the club helps give students a sense of direction in an important field.

In the field, actuaries are responsible for mathematically analyzing the financial consequences of risk by studying potential market shifts, specifically in regards to insurance and pension programs. At Illinois. actuarial science students are part of the Department of Mathematics, though they learn statistics and data analysis through the Department of Statistics.

The Actuarial Science Club routinely holds networking events with various insurance and financial corporations throughout the year. Companies such as CNA Financial and Blue Cross Blue Shield visit campus to look for prospective actuaries to employ.

Matthew Ando, head of the Department of Mathematics, believes the Actuarial Science Club can make a difference for students looking to put their mathematical and statistical skills to work.

“I think the students really feel like they are part of the whole enterprise and they have significant ownership of what happens in the program,” Ando said.

The club is built on one of the strongest academic programs in actuarial science in the country. The Actuarial Science Program in the Department of Mathematics won the University Award presented by the Casualty Actuarial Society, and the Society of Actuaries has named the program a Center of Actuarial Excellence. College Values Online ranked Illinois as the fourth best school for actuarial science in the nation.

According to a recent departmental survey, more than 90 percent of domestic students with an actuarial science degree from Illinois have secured a job in the field. The Actuarial Science Club makes findings those post-grad opportunities even easier.

“We just have a really good recruiting process,” Liu said. “It is beneficial to be near Chicago. I know a lot of big companies that recruit for actuarial science will come down for presentations and come down for our career fair. We help members prepare for that.”

Liu and the rest of the club’s 11-member executive board have been busy throughout the first few weeks of the semester. The club held a barbecue for freshmen and transfer students, and on Quad Day the club saw a lot of interest, with about 100 prospective members leaving their contact information.

“That’s a pretty big number because it’s a really specific club,” Liu said. “It’s not something that people would randomly join.”

Perhaps the club’s most important event is the Meet the Firms night in late September, when dozens of companies from Chicago and surrounding areas come to campus for an actuarial science-specific career fair. The club holds a mock Meet the Firms the week prior in order to prepare the newer members on how to properly network and build resumes.

“It’s really great that the students organize this themselves,” Ando said. “It gives the student leadership a sense of direct connection to the actuarial science firms so they get a lot of professional development out of it. It gives the students a sense of how professional networking works.”

Along with the professional and networking benefits, the club organizes social events such as picnics and barn dances to build camaraderie, while also establishing study sessions and exam preps to help students succeed in class.

“There will always be someone taking the same exam, and you can study with them,” Liu said. “It’s helpful because you're not by yourself on a Saturday night studying. There will be somebody else there studying with you.”