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The Best Cities To Move To For Your Degree

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Haleigh Kopinski
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Point Park chapter.

Point Park offers many majors of study, but once you have your degree, where do you? While New York and Los Angeles are popular post-grad destinations, odds are they’re not the best city for your qualifications. Here is a list of the best cities for some of Point Park’s undergraduate majors.

  • Information Technology: Austin, Texas is an area filled with IT heavy companies that are planning to expand. According to Forbes.com, Visa, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T among other companies are all planning expansion projects. As well as these well-known companies, Forbes states that “National Instruments, which makes test and measurement hardware and software systems, said in February it would add 1,000 jobs in Austin with an average wage of $72,223.” On top of that, Austin was named #1 on Forbes’ list of “Best Cities for Job Growth”. Not too shabby compared to that $20,000+ debt in student loans, is it?
  • Economic and Finance: Salt Lake City, Utah is thriving in the job growth area. Slate.com says the large amount of growing financial services in the area is highly responsible for making Salt Lake the fourth fastest growing job area in the country in the past year. Investment banks like global company Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of Scotland can be found in this up and coming city rich with job opportunities in finance. Bloomsberg Business week called Salt Lake the “Wall Street of the West” and Deseret News states that the median age of employment in the area is 29 years old, which is 4 years younger than the next lowest average median in a state. Hey, you can always fake a job at Goldman Sachs like Topher Grace in Take Me Home Tonight… that kind of worked.
  • Cinema Production: Chicago, Illinois is a record-breaking city when it comes to cinema production and moviemaking with 235 film projects and a budget of $184 million for spending in 2012. Moviemaker.com placed Chicago at #1 on their list of “Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker in 2014”. Home to the nation’s largest harbor system and a mix of beaches, parks, city streets, and amazing art displays – the city has a little bit of everything. Not to mention the Illinois Film Production Credit has a 30% tax credit on $100,000 spent for projects over 30 minutes, and a 30% credit on in-state salaries up to $100,000 per worker. With all these benefits who needs to worry about the freakishly cold winter?
  • Mass Communication: New York City, New York is home to some of the largest communication and social media companies in the country. Onwardsearch.com compiled a list of the best cities for this major and not only did New York City get #1 on “Cities With the Highest Volume of Social Media Jobs” but it also ranked #1 on a list for highest paying salary in this job area as well. New York City is filled with many internship opportunities as well which helps jumpstart your career in mass communication before you even graduate. Who doesn’t want to get paid to tweet?
  • Public Relations and Advertising: Washington, D.C. is full of job opportunities and high paying salaries for PR Specialists, especially if you’re interested in doing PR for politicians. The average salary for a PR Specialist in D.C. is $81,000 compared to the national average of $46,000 according to marketwired.com. Along with these high salaries, lots of companies or politicians in the D.C. area offer internships, which help college students get their foot in the door early for these jobs. Marketwired.com says that your chance of getting a PR job in the capital area is three-fold compared to anywhere else in the United States. With those odds you should be sure to land a job here (fingers crossed).
  • Criminal Justice:  Los Angeles, California is one of the best places to land a job with a criminal justice degree. The Los Angeles metropolitan area alone has over 4,000 people employed in criminal justice related occupations in the county. Along with the high employment opportunities, the online Criminal Justice Degree Hub states that the Los Angeles area also has some of the highest paid criminal justice jobs in the country. High employment, high wages, and a high murder rate? How much more job security do you really need?

Other cities with high employment rates for college grads:

  • San Jose, California
  • Arlington, Virginia
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Houston, Texas
  • St. George, Utah
  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Seattle, Washington
  • Boston, Massachusetts 
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Haleigh Kopinski is a senior Creative Writing major with a minor in Psychology at Point Park University. Haleigh started out as a contributing writer and photographer for Her Campus Point Park and is now a Co-Campus Correspondent. When she's not writing or hanging out with her boyfriend she enjoys going to Pirates games, taking pictures, drawing, eating at new places, and going to concerts. She works at Olive Garden while she is home from school and when it's not taking up her summer time she loves boating on the Allegheny River. She is currently in the process of planning a cross-country road trip which will become a featurelength documentary. You can learn more about the trip at facebook.com/getbornfilm or indiegogo.com/projects/get-born/x/6924599#home If you like reading her pieces be sure to follow her at twitter.com/haleighkopinski or xfrankthetankx.tumblr.com to see some personal wit.