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

The state of Pennsylvania is located in the northeastern section of the United States. Because of Pennsylvania's central location among the original Thirteen Colonies as well as the fact that it was a center of economy in that time, possessing both the industry of the North and the agriculture of the South, Pennsylvania was often referred to as the Keystone State. It is bordered to the north by Lake Erie and New York, to the east by New Jersey, to the south by Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, and to the west by Ohio.

The landscape of Pennsylvania is much like the rest of the northeastern states. Within its borders can be found plains, coastlines, forests, and mountainous areas. While the lower elevations experience cool to cold winters and hot, humid summers, the highland regions have warm, humid summers, and cold, more severe and snowy winters. Due to Pennsylvania's proximity to both the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, precipitation is plentiful throughout the state.

In 2006, the state of Pennsylvania had an estimated population of 12,440,621. This makes Pennsylvania the 6th most populous state in the nation. Around 5% of the state's residents, or 621,480 people, were foreign born. In terms of age, the population is broken down as follows: 5.9% have been reported as being under 5, 23.8% were recorded as under 18, while 15.6% were 65 or older.

While, in the past decade, there has been no clearly dominant political party in Pennsylvania, in more recent elections, the state seems to support the Democratic Party over the Republican Party. In the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry won the state's votes by 50.92%, in comparison to George W. Bush's total of 48.42%. Currently, the Democrats now hold both the governorship of the state as well as the majority in the state's General Assembly. In the 2006 Midterm Elections, the Democrats won one of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats on top of four U.S. House of Representative positions. The state's Senate, however, remains under the control of the Republican Party, with a 29-21 majority.

Of Pennsylvania's 12,281,054 residents, approximately 8,448,193 were determined to belong to an organized religion of some sort. Around 115 different faiths are practiced within the state. The religious makeup of these residents are: 53.43% Roman Catholic, 30% Mainline Protestant, 10% Evangelical Protestant, and 5.53% practicing some other theological belief system. Pennsylvania is also known to have the highest concentration of an Amish population in the United States.

The state budget of Pennsylvania is funded 39% by state sales taxes, 34% by income taxes, 12% by motor vehicle taxes, and 5% by taxes placed on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. Local jurisdictions, including counties, municipalities, and school districts, levy taxes on real estate. In addition to these, some areas impose a wage tax on personal income, though, in most places, this rate is capped at 1% of income.

There are many colleges and universities to be found within Pennsylvania territories. Some of your options when looking for a school in this area are:

• Pennsylvania State University

• The University of Pittsburgh

• The University of Pennsylvania

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 "Pennsylvania".

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