The Fellowship Admissions Course

Last week I traveled by myself to Atlanta to attend the Society of Actuaries’ Fellowship Admissions Course.  This was the last step on my way to be a credentialed actuary fellow!

One of my coworkers, Allen, was also there.  I actually woke him up half an hour before one of the morning seminars.  They have this strict rule that if you miss any more than 10 minutes of a seminar, you fail the course. The seminars covered ethics, communication, and professionalism and encouraged participation.  There was also a short presentation that we had to give.  I got the impression that everyone was a little on edge because of this until the final dinner when everyone was done and just had to sit back, wait for their name to be called, and not trip on their way to get their sheet of paper saying they had passed all of these exams.

On the certificate was this quote:

“The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions.”

Ruskin

which happens to be the Society’s motto.   All that said, everyone was so super happy and relaxed after receiving their diploma that they gave a standing ovation to the last guy who was called up.  It was a celebratory night filled with a fancy dinner, drinking, and some schmoozing in the lounge afterwards.  There was even a DJ who played the cupid shuffle (a small handful of us danced a bit).  Everyone was so happy after years of studying (nine for me) that the certificate might have well said this:

“Sunshine is delicious”

Ruskin

Apparently, Ruskin said a lot of quotable stuff.