Program Overview

Master of Science in Actuarial Science

The Master of Science in Actuarial Science is a 36 semester credit hour program that aims to educate future leaders of the actuarial industry. The program provides training in actuarial theory and methods, as well as a wide spectrum of actuarial applications involving probabilistic and statistical models.

Program Objective

The objective of the program is to prepare students to take five actuarial preliminary exams and two advanced actuarial classes, leading to professional accreditation. Students will also have the opportunity to take classes required for Validation of Educational Experience (VEE) credits in statistics, finance, and economics. With this combined knowledge, graduates will be able to work as senior actuaries in insurance, consulting, finance, government, and emerging markets.

Course Requirements

The program requires a minimum of 36 semester credit hours, consisting of 27 semester credit hours of required courses and 9 semester credit hours of electives.

Required Courses

• STAT 5351: Probability and Statistics I (3 semester credit hours)
• STAT 5352: Probability and Statistics II (3 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6301: Theory of Actuarial Models: Life Contingencies I (4 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6302: Theory of Actuarial Models: Financial Economics (5 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6303: Theory of Actuarial Models: Life Contingencies II (6 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6304: Construction and Evaluation of Actuarial Models I (7 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6305: Construction and Evaluation of Actuarial Models II (8 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6306: Advanced Actuarial Applications (9 semester credit hours)
• ACTS 6308: Actuarial Financial Mathematics (10 semester credit hours)

Prescribed Elective Courses

Students must select three courses from the following:

• STAT 6337: Advanced Statistical Methods I
• STAT 6329: Applied Probability and Stochastic Processes
• STAT 6338: Advanced Statistical Methods II
• STAT 6343: Experimental Design
• STAT 6347: Applied Time Series Analysis
• STAT 7338: Time Series Modeling and Filtering
• STAT 6348: Applied Multivariate Analysis
• STAT 6390: Topics in Statistics-Level 6
• STAT 7334: Nonparametric and Robust Statistical Methods
• MATH 6313: Numerical Analysis
• STAT 6331: Statistical Inference I
• FIN 6301: Financial Management
• FIN 6308: Regulation of Business and Financial Markets
• FIN 6310: Investment Theory and Practice
• FIN 6314: Fixed Income Securities
• FIN 6360: Derivatives Markets
• FIN 6382: Numerical Methods in Finance
• OPRE 6335: Risk and Decision Analysis
• MECO 6303: Business Economics
• ACCT 6305: Accounting for Managers
• PPPE 6321: Economics for Public Policy

Faculty

The program is led by a team of experienced faculty members, including:

• Professors: Larry P. Ammann, Zalman I. Balanov, Swati Biswas, Pankaj K. Choudhary, Mieczyslaw K. Dabkowski, Vladimir Dragovic, Sam Efromovich, Yulia Gel, M. Ali Hooshyar, Wieslaw Krawcewicz, Susan E. Minkoff, L. Felipe Pereira, Dmitry Rachinskiy, Viswanath Ramakrishna, Janos Turi, John Zweck
• Professors Emeritus: Patrick Odell, John W. Van Ness
• Clinical Professors: Natalia Humphreys, Wenyi (Roy) Lu
• Associate Professors: Yan Cao, Min Chen
• Clinical Associate Professor: Mohammad Akbar
• Assistant Professors: Maxim Arnold, Carlos Arreche, Bhargab Chattopadhyay, Sy Han (Steven) Chiou, Qingwen Hu, Frank Konietschke, Yifei Lou, Oleg Makarenkov, Tomoki Ohsawa, Sunyoung Shin, Anh Tran, Nathan Williams
• Associate Professor of Instruction: My Linh Nguyen
• Senior Lecturers: Mohammad Ahsan, Kelly Aman, Malgorzata Dabkowska, Rabin Dahal, Anatoly Eydelzon, Manjula Foley, Bentley T. Garrett, Yuly Koshevnik, David L. Lewis, Changsong Li, Brady McCary, Derege Mussa, Paul Stanford, Julie Sutton, Tristan Whalen
• UT Dallas Affiliated Faculty: Hervé Abdi, Titu Andreescu, Alain Bensoussan, Stefano Leonardi, Faruck Morcos, Zhenyu Xuan, Hyuntae Yoo, Michael Qiwei Zhang