2025 Compare Cities Education:
Columbia, MD vs Santa Barbara, CA

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Highlights
- Santa Barbara spends 6.7% less per student than Columbia.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 56.1% higher in Santa Barbara than in Columbia. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Santa Barbara had 7.6% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Columbia
 Columbia, MDSanta Barbara, CAUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$16,705$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$16,615  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$7,862$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio13.46  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock123874573
 Students per Counselor331  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock7.2%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.2.0%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock88.0%88.9%
 Some College Educ.14.0%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock7.2%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.62.8%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock12.6%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.8%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock3.5%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 Santa Barbara    51 Reviews

I moved to Santa Barbara around 23 years ago to study at Brooks, which like most of the Santa Barbara that I knew—has been destroyed. Homelessness, drugs, gangs, high  More

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Over 4 years ago

I fell in love with Santa Barbara about thirty years ago and finally moved here a few years ago. Because of the price of homes, it is an expensive place to live. The  More

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If you like high crime, paying a $4,500 a month mortgage and crazy high taxes, this is the place for you. It’s too bad because it wasn’t always like this. When I moved  More

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