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

The state of Washington, not to be confused with Washington, D.C., is located in the Pacific Northwest region os the U.S. Named after America's first president, George Washington, Washington was the 42nd state to join the union. It is also home to the infamous Mount S. Helens. Washington is bordered by Canada to the north, Idaho to the east, Oregon to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

There is a wide variety of terrain within the state of Washington. The state is bisected by the north-south running mountains of the Cascade Range. To the west of these mountains lie dense forests of conifers as well as areas of temperate rain forest. In the east, the landscape is much drier. The eastern section of Washington is composed primarily of grasslands, semiarid steppe, and deserts with small areas of forests and mountains mixed in.

The annual temperature ranges from an average of 51°F on the Pacific coast to 40°F in the northeast. While the eastern half of the state is relatively dry, with only around 6 inches of precipitation annually, the western side is known for its mild climate, considerable fog, frequent cloud cover, and long-lasting drizzles in the winter with sunny and dry summers. Some areas in the west are known to receive as much as 160 inches of precipitation a year and, on the western slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range, some of the heaviest snowfall in the country, more than 200 inches per year, has been recorded.

According to 2005 figures, Washington had an estimated population of 6,395,798. This includes around 631,500 foreign-born individuals, or 10.3% of the state's population, and 100,000 illegal aliens, or 1.6% of the population. In the 2000 U.S. Census, it was recorded that almost half of Washington's total population, or 3,043,878 of its residents, lived in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Area.

Washington has, for the most part, supported the Democratic Party over that of the Republican Party. In the last five presidential elections, from 1988-2004,the state's voters have voted for the Democratic candidate every time. Washington is also recognized as the only state to have ever elected women to all three major statewide offices (the governorship as well as the two U.S. Senators) at the same time.

Religiously, Washington residents are primarily Christian. 29% of the population follows a Protestant affiliated belief system while 20% identify themselves as Roman Catholic. This, along with other Christian-related faiths, gives the state a total Christian makeup of 60%, which is the lowest Christian population out of any U.S. state. On top of this, those residents who say they are non-religious make up 25% of the total population, which is the highest percentage of non-religious people in the nation as well.

The state of Washington is one of only seven states in the country that doesn't impose a personal income tax. The state sales tax is currently set at 5.6%, though local areas may have additional taxes, which can raise the final rate up to somewhere between 8% and 9%. Most foods, however are exempt from these taxes, although prepared foods, dietary supplements, and soft drinks remain taxable.

Numerous colleges and universities are based within the state of Washington. Some of these schools include:

• Washington State University

• Whitman College

• The University of Washington

• The Evergreen State College

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 "Washington".

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