10 Great Cities for College Grads

Cramming for final exams is over and you've got your degree.

(Image credit: ©Ireneusz Skorupa)

Cramming for final exams is over and you've got your degree. Now the real test begins. As graduates prepare to enter the workforce, they'll find the best job market in the last five years, according to career experts. The bad news: average starting salaries for new grads have dropped below $30,000 during the same time frame.

Here are ten U.S. cities that may offer exceptional opportunities for recent grads in a rebounding economy.

We began our search using the same criteria we applied to select our list of Best Cities for the Next Decade: healthy economies fueling new job growth. We then refined our search by looking at factors of interest to the post-grad set, such as rent affordability, access to public transportation, overall cost of living, culture, nightlife and the percentage of people ages 20 to 24.

Take a look. And let us know what you think with a reader comment.

Disclaimer

The unemployment rate data listed is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as of March 2011. It is preliminary and has yet to be seasonally adjusted.

Andrea Browne Taylor
Contributing Editor

Browne Taylor joined Kiplinger in 2011 and was a channel editor for Kiplinger.com covering living and family finance topics. She previously worked at the Washington Post as a Web producer in the Style section and prior to that covered the Jobs, Cars and Real Estate sections. She earned a BA in journalism from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is Director of Member Services, at the National Association of Home Builders.