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

Located in the western United States, Nevada is most likely best known for its widespread legalization of gambling, especially in the city of Las Vegas. The state's official slogan, "The Battle Born State," refers to the fact that Nevada was admitted to the U.S. during the American Civil War. Nevada is bordered to the north by Oregon and Idaho, to the east by Utah and Arizona, and to both the south and west by California.

Although, like most of the west, Nebraska is often thought of as only a desert region, it does have many north-south mountain ranges running through it. Some of these mountains even have peaks of over 13,000 feet, which allows them to create "sky island" full of lush forests high above the desert.

Because most of Nebraska is covered by desert landscapes, the summer temperatures are understandably hot while the temperatures in the winter can reach sub-freezing. Sometimes, the moisture from Arizona Monsoons will cause summer thunderstorms throughout the state. In the winter, Pacific storms have been known to blanket the area with snow.

From 1991 until 2006, Nevada was reported as the fastest growing state, in terms of population, in the entire country. In 2006, however, it fell to second place after Arizona overtook its previously held first place position.

In January of 2007, Nevada had an estimated population of 2,852,807. Because of its rapid population growth due to migration, Nevada has the highest percentage of residents who were born outside of the state than any other U.S. state. Of these residents, 6.8% were reported to be under the age of 5, 26.3% were under 18, while 13.6% were 65 years old or older.

The state of Nevada is not dominated by either the Democrats or Republicans and is, in fact, a Bellwether state. This means that the state's voters tend to vote along with the general feeling of the rest of the nation. Official statistics place the party registration of voters in Nevada at 40.5% Republicans, 40.1% Democrats, and 19.3% Independents.

Nevada voters voted for Bill Clinton in both the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections and George W. Bush in both the 2000 and 2004 campaigns. In the 2004 election, however, George Bush only won the state by a margin of 2 percentage points, with 50.5% of the total votes in the state.

78% of Nevada residents say they are Christians, with 44% being Roman Catholic, 24% belonging to Protestant faiths, 12% affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ the Latter-day Saints. 2% of the remaining population follow other religious beliefs, including 1% who identify themselves with Judaism, while 20% state that they are non-religious.

Nevada is one of only a few states with absolutely no personal income tax whatsoever. The sales tax of the state is 6.5%, presently. However, counties are allowed to levy additional option taxes as well, which can cause the sales tax in some areas to be as high as 7.75%.

There are a few colleges and universities to decide between if you want to attend an educational institution in Nevada. These include such places as:

• Nevada State College

• The University of Nevada

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 "Nevada".

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