Descriptions
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the U.S. state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean. New Jersey is the 4th least extensive, but the 11th most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies mostly within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. It is also the third wealthiest by 2009–2010 median household income.
New Jersey's position at the center of the Northeast megalopolis, between Boston and New York City to the northeast, and Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. to the southwest, fueled its rapid growth through the process of suburbanization in the 1950s and beyond.
New Jersey can be thought of as five regions, based on natural geography and population. Northeastern New Jersey, lies within the New York City Metropolitan Area, and some residents commute into the city to work. Northwestern New Jersey is compared to the northeast, more wooded, rural, and mountainous. The "Shore", along the Atlantic Coast in the central-east and southeast, has its own natural, residential, and lifestyle characteristics owing to its location by the ocean. The southwestern counties of the state are reside within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. The fifth region is in the interior of the southern part. Covered rather extensively by mixed pine and oak forest, it has a much lower population density than much of the rest of the state.
New Jersey is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse states in the country. As of 2011, has the third highest Asian population by percentage, fourth largest Chinese population.
Education
In 2010, there were 605 school districts in the state.
Census data reveal that New Jersey spent more per each public school student than any other state except New York in 2009.
According to 2011 Newsweek statistics, students of High Technology High School in Lincroft, Monmouth County and Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, Bergen County registered average SAT scores of 2145 and 2100, respectively, representing the highest and second-highest scores, respectively, of all listed U.S. high schools.
Princeton University in Princeton, Mercer County, is tied with Harvard University in Massachusetts as the top ranked U.S. national university for 2012 as per U.S. News & World Report.