With only my thesis left, I thought I’d take some time to reflect on my experience in Tartu and share my thoughts about the Actuarial and Financial Engineering program at the University of Tartu. I think one of the most common questions I get asked when I tell people that I study actuarial and financial engineering is, what is that? So I’ll start with what the program is in simpler terms. It’s a mathematics and statistics program applied to insurance and the stock market, and most of the courses are theoretical in nature. The program as a whole lies somewhere between the fields of mathematics, statistics, and computer science, but more on that later.
How did I even get here? Before I came to Tartu, I had never been outside North America. I had thought about traveling the world and maybe living in a different country, but at that time, I had always had a reason I couldn’t or, if not a reason, an excuse. Eventually, I applied in 2020. When I got the acceptance letter, I could feel the rush of adrenaline you get when something exciting happens. And finally, I was going to do it. After years of waiting, I was finally going to live and study abroad in Europe.
As it turns out, living in Eastern Europe isn’t all that different from living in the United States. Well, except that I walk or bike everywhere within the city. The city bike-share system makes cycling much easier for students. You can pick up a bike in one location and drop it off in another. There are stations all over the city, so there’s always a convenient one, no matter your destination. The supermarkets are also smaller, and you can’t find everything in one store, but the rest of my life is more or less the same; I go to the gym, class, and work, and in my spare time, I read and am learning the guitar.
But enough about me, you’re here to read about my program. Like I said before, the program is a mixture of mathematics, statistics, and computer science. While I’d say that computer science is the least prominent of the three, knowing something about coding and Python/R will get you a long way. Since I didn’t start my master’s immediately after finishing my bachelor’s, it’s hard to say how much more of the math I would have remembered if I hadn’t taken that break. I found it manageable to relearn some of the expected math and statistics undergraduate material while also taking the master’s courses. And although it required some serious dedication on my part, It was incredibly rewarding to get through the frustration of not understanding anything, gaining a foothold in the underlying mathematics, and finally learning the course material.
I still remember my first experience with this like it was yesterday. I was sitting in self-isolation, watching the first stochastic models lecture. It was about probability spaces and algebras, not the class you’re probably thinking of. At this point, I had already forgotten all mathematical notation from my undergraduate, so I was starting from effectively nothing. I had to look up all the symbols, then refresh myself on what sets were, and then onto the topic at hand—what is an algebra? It took me a few days, but eventually, I understood everything from the lecture. And this was just the first of many similar experiences in the first year.
The program is set up such that it’s possible to complete what I would consider are the core courses within the first year. These are the mathematics, statistics, financial math, and actuarial classes, and they make up just under half of the total credits. Once those classes are complete, your world opens up a little bit more. You have six ECTS which are entirely up to you, which equates to one or two courses. The most interesting module is the elective module. In it, there is a list of options from which you can choose, but it’s also possible to get other courses approved by the program manager. But in either case, these classes need to be related to the program in some way. I elected to take Estonian B1.2 to B2.1, microeconomics, and statistical machine learning.
It’s also possible to take extra courses, on top of the required courses. I’ve taken a couple of art classes, which unfortunately don’t exist anymore, but if you want to read about my experience with those, you can check out that blog post here. I’ve also taken two Russian courses, which, if you’re looking to learn a language, UT has plenty from which to choose. Having a semester of a language course entirely online was pretty challenging. I had to make sure that I prepared for each class to get the most out of it. But after the first semester, I decided to try to take Russian on the basis of Estonian to try to improve my Estonian. I thought, “it’ll be easy since I should know all the simple vocabulary already,” but I was wrong. Every class was incredibly challenging and full of new words in both languages. While it did have the intended effect of improving my Estonian, if you speak English, I definitely recommend taking any other language on the basis of English.
In addition to your coursework, there are credits allotted toward professional practice. For these credits, you need to have or obtain work experience in a job or internship related to the degree. After completing the work part, there is a defense. To do this portion, you’ll need to write a report and get a letter from your supervisor with their opinion of your work. You’ll then give a presentation about what you did, after which you may be asked some follow-up questions. As I haven’t completed this step yet, unfortunately, I can’t give more details about what the experience is like.
However, where I do have some experience is what it’s like to go to UT in-person versus online. My first fall semester was almost entirely in-person; however, the spring semester was online. In my opinion, in-person beats out online any day of the week for any course. While the university has all the technology to hold online lectures, they’re missing something. Watching the class from my laptop just didn’t allow me to focus as well on it as I would’ve been able to in class.
With everything said, overall, my experience in Tartu has been a positive one. I came here to study, and this mindset has helped me to be what I would consider relatively successful. If you have any questions about my experience or want to learn more about the Actuarial and Financial Engineering program, you can find my contact information here and the program website here.
All pictures belong to the author.
