So, you're thinking about attending a college or university in California?

Located on the Pacific coast, California is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, Mexico to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It has a diverse geography, ranging from sandy beaches along the Pacific coast to the high, snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, which include Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous forty-eight states.

Around 35% of the states total area is covered by forests while another 25% consist of deserts. The center of the state is largely taken up by the Central Valley, where a large portion of the United States' food is grown.

Within California, you will find Yosemite National Park, famous for its glacially-carved domes, as well as Sequoia National Park, which is home to the largest living organisms on Earth, the giant sequoia trees. The tallest living things on Earth, the ancient redwood trees, are also located in California along the coastline north of San Francisco. In addition to these, you can also find the oldest known trees in the world here in the White Mountains. Known as Bristlecone pines, one has an age of 4,700 years.

Due to the huge differences in the geography of California, the climate varies from subtropical to subarctic, though most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, which provides cool, rainy winters and dry summers. In Death Valley, which is located in eastern California, the highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere was recorded as 134°F on July 10, 1913.

The estimated population of California in 2006 was 37,172,015. This shows that more than 12% of United States citizens live in California and that its population is actually larger than all but 33 countries.

Over 200 languages are known to be spoken and read in California, leading California to be viewed as one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. Even so, as of 2000, the majority of California residents age five and older, 60.5%, were reported to be monolingual and spoke only English at home.

California has an idiosyncratic political culture. Residents don't tend to vote either conservative or liberal all the time, but vary based on the current issue. Since 1990, however, California voters have typically elected Democratic candidates.

The religious makeup of California is as diverse as its geography. While it does have the most Roman Catholics of any state and a large Protestant population, it also boasts a large American Jewish community and a rapidly-growing American Muslim population. In addition to these, roughly 40% of all Buddhists in America reside in Southern California.

As far as taxes are concerned, California levies a 9.3% maximum income tax with 6 tax brackets. Sales tax, including state, county, and local rates, generally range from 7.25-8.75%. Due to a constitutional amendment unique to California, 40% of state revenues are required to be spent on education.

With hundreds of colleges and universities to choose from, California offers some of the best educational opportunities in the world. California State University is the largest university system in the U.S., with over 400,000 students. The University of California is considered one of the world's finest public university systems due in part to the fact that it employs more Nobel Prize laureates than any other educational institution in the world. Other educational institutions to choose from in the state of California include:

• Stanford University

• The University of Southern California (USC)

• California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

To find more information about universities and colleges in this area, visit the Online College Degree page on this website.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "California".

Free College Planning Resources