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

Louisiana, one of the southern states, is bordered in the north by Arkansas, in the east by Mississippi, in the south by the Gulf of Mexico, and in the west by Texas. Within its territory is located a natural system of navigable waterways unequaled in the United States, composed of over 4,000 miles in total length.

The state of Louisiana is primarily broken into two distinct landscape types. The first of these is the alluvial region, which is located along rivers, mainly the Mississippi, and the coast. This area ranges from 10 feet to 60 feet above sea level. These areas are protected against flooding of the various rivers they surround by levees and are only flooded when a break occurs in the levees, which doesn't happen often.

The north-northwestern section of Louisiana is located in the uplands area of the state. This region consists mostly of prairie and woodlands. The elevation here ranges from 60-535 feet above sea level, which constitutes the highest point in the state. Only two other states in the U.S., Delaware and Florida, are geographically lower than Louisiana.

Throughout the year, precipitation is frequent in Louisiana. The summers in Louisiana are among the most oppressively hot and humid in the entire U.S. Temperatures in the summer, from mid-June to mid-September, generally range from 90-105°F throughout the state during the day and average around 70°F at night. The winters of Louisiana are fairly mild, with highs reaching 60-65°F and lows from around 37°F to 45°F.

While snow is not very common in Louisiana, with only the northern section of the state getting a few mild flurries during the average year, the state is very vulnerable to tropical cyclones and major hurricane strikes. The area is also known to have many thunderstorms during the year, averaging over 60 days of thunderstorm activity a year. This makes it the second most active state in terms of thunderstorms, with only the state of Florida having more per year. Louisiana also averages around 27 tornadoes annually, with the entire state being vulnerable, though the southernmost portion of the state is less so than the rest.

In July of 2005, Louisiana had an estimated population of 4,523,628. Of this, 32.5% of the population are African-American, which makes Louisiana home to the second-largest African-American population in the U.S. Only the state of Mississippi, with 36.5% of its population being African-American, has a larger percentage. This was before the strike of Hurricane Katrina, however, which displaced an estimate of more than two million people and killed more than 1,500.

In the political arena, Louisiana is unique in how it holds state, local, and congressional elections. Regardless of party affiliation, all candidates run in an open primary on Election Day. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then the two candidates with the highest total compete in a runoff election about one month later. Since the system doesn't take into account party affiliation, it is not uncommon to have two Democrats or two Republicans competing with each other in the runoff.

80% of Louisiana's population are Christian. Most are Protestant (50%), like most other southern states, but, unlike its neighbors, it has a large native Catholic population as well. 30% of residents in the state identify themselves as Roman Catholic. As for the remaining 20% of the population, half are affiliated with other religions while the other half state that they are non-religious.

The state of Louisiana's income tax is broken into three brackets, which range from 2% to 6%. The state sales tax is set at 4% currently, with 3.97% of this being standard sales tax and 0.03% being a Louisiana Tourism Promotion District sales tax. Individual political subdivisions, known as parishes instead of the more common term of counties, can also levy their own taxes in addition to those mandated by the state.

If you want to attend a college or university in the state of Louisiana, there are several schools to choose from. Some of your possible options include:

• Louisiana State University

• The University of Louisiana

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 "Louisiana".

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