2025 Compare Cities Education:
Columbia, MD vs Lake Forest, IL

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Highlights
- Lake Forest spends 36.4% more per student than Columbia.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 0.7% higher in Lake Forest than in Columbia. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Lake Forest had 4.1% more residents who had graduated High School compared to Columbia
 Columbia, MDLake Forest, ILUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$24,440$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$16,615  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$12,628$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio13.46  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock10054573
 Students per Counselor331  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock0.5%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.2.0%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock99.1%88.9%
 Some College Educ.14.0%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock3.0%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.62.8%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock25.4%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.8%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock4.0%1.5%
Reviews for Columbia    28 Reviews

Over 5 years ago

Lived here for a while, beautiful opportunities, pays well, overall nice  More

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Been here 30 years was great at first but once they added a transit bus from baltimore to columbia 15-18 years ago that was the beginning of the end. And about 5 years  More

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Columbia can be described in one word: unequal. The neighborhood I live in, River Hill, is jam-packed with almost million-dollar homes, while the neighborhoods of Long  More

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Reviews for Lake Forest    4 Reviews

We relocated cross county to Lake Forest about a year ago due to a job change. We looked at nearby communities, within proximity of the work commute (the office is in  More

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Be prepared for a so called upscale town with entitled, overpaid, snooty people from teenagers who sneer at you to adults who look you up and down, who make demands on a  More

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Over 15 years ago

Long cold winters, short cold springs, hot humid summers, nice  More

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