Actuarial Science Minor

An actuary is a business professional who analyzes the financial consequences of risk. In the Actuarial Science minor, students will learn mathematics, statistics, and financial theory essential to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance in health, life, and properties, as well as how to mitigate them. Through the courses offered through this minor, students will be able to evaluate risk and learn methods to reduce the likelihood and decrease the impact of adverse events that do occur.

Minor Requirements

Five courses are required in total to complete the minor. This includes two foundational required courses and three electives.
Required courses for Actuarial Science minor:

Choose one from the following:

(1) Choose one of the following:

BTRY 3080 - Probability Models and Inference (4 credits)
MATH 4710 - Basic Probability (4 credits)
ECON 3110 - Probability Models and Inference for the Social Sciences (4 credits)
ECON 3130 - Statistics and Probability (4 credits)
ORIE 3500 - Engineering Probability and Statistics II (4 credits)

(2)

STSCI 3090 - Financial Math for Actuarial Science (4 credits)

(3-5)

Elective courses for Actuarial Science minor: Students in the Actuarial science minor must take at least three electives from the following list:

STSCI 3040 - R Programming for Data Science (4 credits)
BTRY 4090 - Theory of Statistics or MATH 4720 - Statistics (4 credits)
STSCI 4270 - Introduction to Survival Analysis and Loss Models (4 credits)
STSCI 4550 - Applied Time Series Analysis (4 credits)
STSCI 4600 - Statistics for Risk Modeling (3 credits)
ORIE 3741 - Learning with Big Messy Data (4 credits)
STSCI 4740: Data Mining and Machine Learning (4 credits)
STSCI 4750 - Understanding Machine Learning (4 credits)
CS 4780: Machine Learning (4 credits)
CS 4786 - [Machine Learning for Data Science] (4 credits)
ORIE 4630 - Operations Research Tools for Financial Engineering (4 credits)
AEM 4210 - Futures, Options and Financial Derivatives (3 credits)
- or ECON 4240: Financial Economics, Derivatives, and Risk Management (4 credits)
- or HADM 3230 - Introduction to Investments (3 credits)

Biometry and Statistics or Statistical Science majors intending to minor in Actuarial Science are required to follow these guidelines:

Students graduating in or before August 2025 cannot overlap their three minor electives with major requirements. Probability courses and STSCI 3090 can be double counted.
Students graduating in or after December 2025 cannot overlap their three minor electives and STSCI 3090 with major requirements. Probability courses can be double counted.

Questions about the minor should be directed to: Julia Aquadro (jra269@cornell.edu), Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising.