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

Located in the Midwest region of the U.S., Indiana is made up primarily of relatively flat land covered in fields, farms, and forests. The southern portion of the state has slightly more variation, geographically, with rolling hills and a limestone geology that has created numerous caves and has produced one of the largest limestone quarry areas in the United States. It is also home to one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the nation, called the Angel Mounds State Historic Site. Indiana is bordered to the north by Lake Michigan and Michigan, to the east by Ohio, to the south by Kentucky, and to the west by Illinois.

The weather of Indiana usually produces hot, humid summers and cool to cold winters, with the southernmost portion of the state experiencing somewhat milder winters than the rest of the state. Average temperatures in the summer range from highs of 85°F in the day to around 60°F at night. While, in winter, the northern section of the state might drop below freezing, on average, the rest of the state stays above this point. The state of Indiana averages about 40 inches of precipitation annually.

Severe weather does occur in Indiana. The state is known to have both winter storms and thunderstorms, though it doesn't generally receive as much snow as states located further to the north. While Indiana is not considered a part of Tornado Alley, it is the Great Lakes state most likely to experience tornado activity.

The population of Indiana, as estimated in 2006, was 6,313,520. Population growth has been highest in the areas around Indianapolis since 1990. In 2005, the percentage of the population that were foreign-born was approximately 3.9%, which comes to about 242,281 people. The largest ancestry that is reported in Indiana, comprising 22.7% of the population, is German.

While half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century have been Democrats, in presidential elections. Indiana voters have generally favored the Republican candidate since the 1964 election. The state's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives have not been overly dominated by either Republicans or Democrats, however. Because of this, who controls the seats of Indiana has been seen as an indicator for the political movement of the nation. Democrats held the majority of seats until 1994, when the Republicans took over. This remained the case until the 2006 election, when the Democrats retook the majority for this state.

The largest single religious denomination in the state of Illinois is Roman Catholic, at 20% of the population. Even with this percentage of Roman Catholics, the state is still predominantly Protestant. Approximately 16% of the population is secular.

Although Indiana has a flat state income tax of 3.4%, there are many counties in the state that also collect income tax. The state sales tax is currently set at 6%. As for jobs, it is important to keep in mind that Indiana follows the doctrine of at-will employment. This means that an employer can terminate an employee for any reason, or even no reason at all, at any time.

There are many colleges and universities to choose from in the state of Indiana. Included in these are:

• The University of Notre Dame

• Indiana University

• Purdue University

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

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

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