The Certificate in Actuarial Science is an eighteen (18) credit program composed of courses from two schools: the School
of Science and Engineering and the Palumbo-Donahue School of Business. The certificate
is available to any Duquesne University student and can be fully accessed only through
fourteen (14) additional credits of prerequisite coursework.
The courses required for the Certificate in Actuarial Science are chosen to position
students for successful completion of two actuarial exams before graduation, while
simultaneously giving students at least three (3) courses that count towards the Validation
by Educational Experience (VEE) requirements as stipulated by the Society of Actuaries.
Program Information
The Certificate in Actuarial Science will position students for successful completion
of two actuarial exams before graduation.
Introduces students to the discipline of accounting and the principles of financial
reporting. Students will develop a basic understanding of how to use the financial
statements to assess the profitability, liquidity and solvency of business entities.
Students will gain an understanding of how financial statement information is communicated
and be exposed to new technology tools to analyze and visualize financial data.
Business Core
3 credits
"What do information systems have to do with business," you ask? Everything! A profound
and fundamental shift is underway in our economy. A shift away from an industrial-based
to an information-based economy. The information-based economy has complex implications
for the management of the modern enterprise. The goal of this course is for students
to see how modern businesses use information systems to increase profitability, gain
market share, improve customer service, and manage inventory and daily operations
across a wide variety of fields, including accounting, finance, marketing, and supply
chain management. The course also highlights how innovative firms are constantly experimenting
with new types of products, production processes, organizational structures, and competitive
strategies that can only be enabled through the use of information systems. In other
words, information systems provide the foundation for modern business enterprises.
The information economy also has important and irrevocable workforce implications.
Tremendous demand will exist for employees that can combine technical skills with
business insight to create value for their organizations. Accordingly, this course
is also designed to both explore careers in Information Systems and Technology (IST)
and demonstrate how Information Systems (IS) can be utilized in any career to facilitate
personal and organizational success. The course approaches the above topics by developing
requisite technology concepts and skills required for success and efficiently and
effectively applying those skills in a business context.
*Students should work with their Success Coach to determine whether they have the
necessary prerequisite knowledge to be waived from the course.
Limits, continuity, and differentiation of algebraic, exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric,
and inverse trigonometric functions. Sum, product, quotient and chain rule formulas
for differentiation. Logarithmic and implicit differentiation. Linearization and differentials.
Indeterminate forms and L’Hospital’s Rule. Graphing using the first and second derivative.
Application of the derivative to optimization and related rates problems. Indefinite
and definite integrals. Substitution rule for integration. Application of the definite
integral to area problems.
Credit is not allowed for both MATH 115/104, MATH 115/114, or MATH 115/111
Prerequisite: grade of "C" or better in MATH 105 or evidence of mastery of college
algebra skills and trigonometry
Applications of integration (areas, volume, work, arc length, surface area), additional
techniques of integration, improper integrals, infinite sequences and series, including
tests of convergence, power series, Taylor and Maclaurin series.
Prerequisite: grade of "C" or better in MATH 114 or MATH 115
Required Courses
This course introduces students to the way in which a free market economic system
resolves the basic social questions of what goods and services to produce, how scarce
resources are organized to produce these goods, and to whom the goods are distributed
once they are produced. Students will explore the components of the market system,
supply and demand, and how they interact under conditions ranging from perfect competition
to monopoly. Market failures and their remedies are also examined.
This course introduces students to the basic economic principles of the aggregate
economy. Students will explore the determinants of, and relationships among, the level
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), unemployment, inflation, foreign trade and interest
rates. In addition, various theories of the role of fiscal and monetary policy to
promote stabilization will be addressed.
Univariate and multivariate probability distributions of discrete and continuous random
variables, mathematical expectation, limit theorems, random variable transformations,
and moment-generating functions.
Prerequisite: grade of C or better in MATH 116
Sampling distributions of random variables, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing
for one and two sample settings. ANOVA, simple linear regression, estimation techniques,
properties of estimators, and likelihood ratio test.
Prerequisite: grade of C or better in MATH 301
Business Core
Business Finance is a core course required for all undergraduate business majors.
Students are introduced to the concept of shareholder wealth maximization through
the following topics: financial statement analysis, time value of money, capital budgeting,
cost of capital, risk and return, and impact of financial leverage on the value of
the firm.
Prerequisites: ACCT 214 and STAT 285
This course is designed to develop an understanding of futures and options and other
derivative financial instruments. The main emphasis is on the reduction of asset and
liability risk for business and financial institutions through hedging operations
in debt and equity instruments, commodities and currencies.
Recommended Course Sequencing
Students who follow the recommended sequencing can be ready to take the first actuarial
exam (exam P - Probability) after completing MATH 301, as early as the spring or summer
of their sophomore year. They can be ready to take the second actuarial exam (exam
FM - Financial Mathematics) after completing FINC 331 and FINC 338, as early as the
summer of their junior year.
The recommended course sequencing will also give students room in their senior year
to take additional courses that, although not part of the Certificate in Actuarial
Science, would qualify toward further VEE requirements (or in the case of SOCI 408
would provide germane enrichment).
ACCT 214, ISYS 184, and MATH 115
MATH 116
ECON 201 and MATH 301
ECON 202 and MATH 302W
FINC 313
FINC 338
Suggested Post-Certificate Courses
Financial Management provides the second part (with FINC 334) of the necessary conceptual
foundation for upper-level courses in Finance and is required for the major in Finance.
Topics include: financial statement analysis and financial forecasting, risk and return,
the cost of capital, capital budgeting, real options in capital budgeting, the corporate
valuation model and measures of financial performance.
Econometrics is the application of statistical methods for the purpose of testing
economic and business theories. This course will introduce students to the skills
used in empirical research including, but not limited to, data collection, hypothesis
testing, model specification, regression analysis, violations of regression assumptions
and corrections, dummy variables and limited dependent variable models. Extensive
focus will be on the intuition and application of econometric methods, and as a result,
statistical software will be used extensively. Students will be required to complete
an independent research project involving the application of regression analysis.
In this course, students learn how to apply statistical and econometric tools in an
attempt to forecast economic and business data. Drawing on techniques learned in Econometrics,
students collect data, build forecasts, evaluate the forecasts, and apply economic
theory and econometric techniques to refine the forecasts. Emphasis is placed equally
on the student correctly performing and concisely communicating the forecasts.
This course is an intensive study of the analytic techniques applicable to the selection
of the various securities of private as well as public entities. Consideration is
given to the markets in which these securities are traded and the type of information
necessary to the decision-making process of the investor as the attempt is made to
measure the value of a particular security. Several models are examined in seeking
appropriateness in establishing the relative worth of a security.
This course is a comprehensive examination of the evolving nature of the domestic
and international money and capital markets, as well as the underlying forces which
shape them. Attention is also paid to the clearing, settlements, and payment systems,
which play an important part in the markets’ performance. The course is required for
the Finance major.
This course examines interrelationships among population processes and social, economic
and political patterns of development. Specific emphasis is placed on the demographic
contexts and consequences for policies in developing and developed societies.
