Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• MET AR 802: Internship in Arts Administration I
  This course has two goals: to provide guidance and practical resources to help students identify, secure, and complete a successful arts internship and to enhance the understanding of working in the field. Topics include the internship search, tailoring application materials, interviewing strategies, networking, negotiating job and salary offers, understanding organizational culture, the impact of remote and hybrid work, career advancement, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and supervision. Internship I is an interactive, seminar-style course where students lead discussions, share their work, and provide feedback to peers. MET AR 802 must be taken before MET AR 803. Arts Administration M.S. degree students only. [2 credits]
• MET AR 803: Internship in Arts Administration II
  This course has two goals: to provide guidance and practical resources to help students identify, secure, and complete a successful arts internship and to enhance the understanding of working in the field. Topics include the internship search, tailoring application materials, interviewing strategies, networking, negotiating job and salary offers, understanding organizational culture, the impact of remote and hybrid work, career advancement, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and supervision. Internship I is an interactive, seminar-style course where students lead discussions, share their work, and provide feedback to peers. MET AR 802 must be taken before MET AR 803. Arts Administration M.S. degree students only. [2 credits]
• MET AR 804: Advanced Management and Consulting for Arts Organizations
  The purpose of this course is to increase students' ability to analyze and solve problems that confront arts organizations. Students will apply financial, marketing, fundraising, and legal knowledge and techniques to (1) in-class discussion of key management issues of concern to senior leadership, and (2) a semester-long consulting project which partners and team of students with a local arts organization. Permission from instructor required/arts administration students only. Students may not register for MET AR 804 until they have completed a minimum of six required courses.
• MET AR 810: Master's Thesis 1
  Two consecutive two-credit courses (MET AR 810 Masters Thesis 1 and MET AR 810 Masters Thesis 2) will give students the tools they need to be informed consumers and producers of arts administration research. The thesis must be completed within 12 months. Only students who have completed six courses in the Arts Administration master's degree program and have a GPA of 3.7 or higher may enroll in MET AR 810 and MET AR 811. Students are responsible for finding a thesis advisor and a principal reader within the department. The advisor must be a full-time faculty member; the principal reader may be a part-time faculty member with a doctorate.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• MET AR 811: Master's Thesis 2
  Two consecutive two-credit courses (MET AR 810 Masters Thesis 1 and MET AR 810 Masters Thesis 2) will give students the tools they need to be informed consumers and producers of arts administration research. The thesis must be completed within 12 months. Only students who have completed six courses in the Arts Administration master's degree program and have a GPA of 3.7 or higher may enroll in MET AR 810 and MET AR 811. Students are responsible for finding a thesis advisor and a principal reader within the department. The advisor must be a full-time faculty member; the principal reader may be a part-time faculty member with a doctorate.
• MET AS 101: The Solar System
  The historical development of astronomy and the motion of the planets. The formation of the solar system. The sun and its effects on the earth. Description of the planets and the moons of our solar system including recent results from the space program. Use of the observatory. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Scientific Inquiry I
• MET AS 102: The Astronomical Universe
  The birth and death of stars. Red giants, white dwarfs, black holes. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, and other galaxies. The Big Bang and other cosmological theories of our expanding universe. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Scientific Inquiry I
• MET AT 505: Actuarial and Financial Data Analysis
  This course covers how programming, spreadsheet usage, and database software can be used in an actuarial environment. The student will work on calculating premiums and analyzing loss metrics over the term while learning about the tools in R Studio, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access that help an actuary perform their analysis in a timely and accurate manner.
• MET AT 511: Economics and Management Decisions
  The aim of the course is to present decision problems and the economic analysis needed to guide these decisions. Microeconomic tools are used to structure complicated decision problems about production, pricing, investment, and other strategic issues and address uncertainty through probabilistic forecasts and sequential decisions. An important part of the course is to develop an understanding of the external environment in which firms operate by analyzing the implications of market structure, macroeconomic developments and policy, and other forms of public policy toward business.
• MET AT 521: Financial Mathematics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: MET MA 225 or consent of instructor. - This course develops uses of interest as it relates to the theory of finance. Students will gain an understanding of interest calculations related to financial instruments including bonds, mortgages, annuities, and financial instruments with non-level payment schemes. The material covered in this course may help students prepare for SoA/CAS Exam FM
• MET AT 531: Fundamentals of Actuarial Mathematics
  Prerequisites: MET MA 581 or CAS MA 581; MET AT 521; or consent of instructor. - This course will cover the fundamentals of both long-term insurance and short-term insurance. The long-term topics will include insurance, annuities, and premiums for from both a theoretical basis and the application of those models. The short-term portion of the course introduces modeling and will cover actuarial methods that are useful in modeling. Foundational principles of ratemaking and reserving for short-term coverages will also be covered. The material covered in this course may help students prepare for SoA Exam FAM.
• MET AT 541: Introduction to Individual Insurance
  This course covers the application of basic actuarial principles to individual life and annuity financial security systems. Material covered will include the purpose of these systems, the development of financial security products, risk classification, actuarial pricing assumptions, the calculation of product cash flows, the purpose of reserves and different reserve methods. Taxation, required capital, profit measurement, and reinsurance considerations will also be studied.
• MET AT 542: Introduction to Group Insurance
  This course covers the application of basic actuarial principles to group life and group health financial security systems. Material covered will include the purpose of these systems, financial security product design and development, underwriting and risk management, premium determination, and the funding and valuation of group life and group health financial security systems. Group systems in the United States will be emphasized, but the course will also review the Canadian health system.
• MET AT 543: Introduction to Property and Casualty Insurance
  This course covers Property & Casualty Industry from an actuarial science perspective. Topics include the theory of insurance including insurable risks, calculation of premiums on those risks, payment of losses on the inevitable claims, the history of the insurance industry with a focus on court cases that shaped the current regulatory structure; and the basic policy structures of homeowners, automobile, and liability insurance; and reinsurance.
• MET AT 722: Finance for Actuaries
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (METAT721) - This course builds off of the topics covered in AT721 ("Mathematics of Compound Interest") by developing both basic and advanced models of corporate finance. Topics covered include net present value valuation, internal rate of return and profitability index models, capital budgeting models, and efficient market hypotheses. These tools will be used to understand and apply basic principles of option pricing theory, including the Black-Scholes formula with application to binomial lattice valuation. The material covered in this course may help students prepare for SoA/CAS Exam FM.
• MET AT 743: Regression and Time Series
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASMA582 or METMA582 Mathematical Statistics, or consent of instructor - Part I of this course will cover simple and multiple regressions, serial correlation, and heteroscedasticity, analysis of residuals, and stepwise analysis techniques. Part II will cover time series analysis including smoothing and extrapolation of time series, linear time series models, model building procedure, and forecasting, as well as case studies.
• MET AT 761: Mathematics for Investment and Portfolio Theory
  Prerequisites: MET MA 581 or CAS MA581 and AT 521 This course covers the risk and return characteristics of primary financial products, fundamental principles of modern portfolio theory, term structures, and yield curves, Markowitz Portfolio Selection Model, CAPM and its applications to portfolio management, derivative securities, duration, immunization, and interest rate risk management.
• MET AT 762: Mathematical Finance for Actuarial Science
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (METMA581 & METAT721) - This course covers the analysis of derivative products and their use in insurance and risk management strategies. It covers selected aspects of rational valuation of derivative products like put-call parity, binomial option, and Black Scholes option pricing model.
• MET AT 771: Advanced Long-Term Actuarial Mathematics
  Prerequisites: MET AT 531 or consent of instructor. - This course continues with the development of long-term financial models introduced in MET AT 531. Insurance Reserves are introduced, including methods for determining reserves, the impact of actuarial assumptions on the calculations, and the effect of real-world results that do not match those assumed. Multiple life and multiple decrement models are introduced, as are Multiple State/Markov Chains and pension mathematics. The material covered in this course may help students prepare for SoA Exam ALTAM.
• MET AT 781: Advanced Short-Term Actuarial Mathematics
  Prerequisites: MET AT 531 or consent of instructor. - This course continues with the development of short-term financial models introduced in AT531 (“Fundamentals of Actuarial Science”). This course addresses severity, frequency, and aggregate models, and evaluation of both complete and incomplete data. The course also covers mathematical models for specific types of insurance, such as medical, automobile, and disability insurance. Credibility models comprise the final topic for the course, and the Classical, Bühlmann-Straub, and Bayesian methods are discussed. The material covered in this course may help students prepare for SoA Exam ASTAM.