Highest-paying jobs for recent college grads

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3. Actuary
Average first-year salary: $79,000
Preferred background: Strong mathematical background, passing a series of professional exams
BLS projected outlook, 2008-2018: 21 percent growth
Actuaries, most of whom work for insurance companies, calculate risk to help determine insurance rates. Altman of HerCampus.com said this was the one professional group on the MyDegree.com list she had never heard much about.
"Once I started reading about them, hearing what they did, it made sense," she said. "You need a lot of math skills, and not a lot of people have those."