>>11828065Yes you’d need a master’s to get the same pay with data science as actuarial, but once you have the masters you’re done with school and never have to take another test again instead of every few months for years and years.
Also, there are plenty of low tier job opportunities in data science that you can get with just a bachelors pretty easily that pay a lot less.
Both data science and actuarial science are specializations in the fields of CS and math. At the undergrad level, it’s better to study a general subject than a specialization for your major, it opens the door for more opportunities, you’ll have a broader perspective than just solving problems for your job, maybe you’ll find something else you’d rather go into than easy job security, at the very least you will get to explore and study some more interesting topics while you’re in school - in either career, there’s no chance of you ever using anything past second year level concepts (other than programming) at any point ever so it’s good to at least learn about some more interesting things while you can.
There is no “field of math” that is “saturated”, yeah academia and research is hard to get into but you can just as easily become an actuary with a math major.
Either actuarial science or data science would be great as a minor.
