2025 Compare Cities Education:
Columbia, MD vs Merced, CA

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Highlights
- Merced spends 20.0% less per student than Columbia.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 64.9% higher in Merced than in Columbia. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Merced had 22.0% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Columbia
 Columbia, MDMerced, CAUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$14,332$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$16,615  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$7,391$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio13.46  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock61024573
 Students per Counselor331  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock14.1%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.2.0%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock74.3%88.9%
 Some College Educ.14.0%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock9.4%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.62.8%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock4.0%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.8%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock1.1%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 Merced    44 Reviews

Merced is totally slept on - you want a little bit of everything CA has to offer, at a fraction of the price of other CA cities? Merced is the place to go. The town  More

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Over 5 years ago

Good place to live. More affordable than most of california. The city is growing and there is alot of business and growth here. Moved from the Bay area years ago and  More

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Great place to live. Lots of progress and changes coming to the city. Great place to raise a family. UC Merced is expanding and businesses are investing. Downtown is  More

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