salary for a first year accountant?

It can be a broad range depending on the demographics of your employer and your specific job responsibilities. Most major business publications are predicting a strong need for Accounting professionals over the next 5 years due to increasingly complex regulations.

Start with Salary.com for an idea.

First Year Accountant Salary

Your university should be in a better position to give you current salary ranges. Check with your faculty adviser or career placement center to see if they can give you a better idea of salaries in those areas. You could also contact state employment offices and see if there are local accounting clubs or organizations you might talk. You could also call accounting firms in those cities or perhaps contact them through email. Starting salaries should be fairly high in those areas. All are high growth areas of the state. I don't understand why your attractiveness would be a factor in your question. Most employers only care about your abilities to do your job, not how good you look. That is something that I would stay away from in an interview. Instead concentrate on what you can bring to the company as it relates to your ability to perform the job for which you are seeking.

I guess my first question to would be...when are you graduating? Most firms hire a year before graduation. As far as job outlook, there have been substantial layoffs in the last few months at most of the big 4 firms. Taking this into consideration, private industry or government may be a good option, however pay will probably be less than public accounting starting out and then there are public accounting experience requirements for the CPA.