2026 Compare Cities Education:
Columbia, MD vs Sunnyvale, CA

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Highlights
- Sunnyvale spends 2.7% more per student than Columbia.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 60.4% higher in Sunnyvale than in Columbia. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Sunnyvale had 2.1% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Columbia
 Columbia, MDSunnyvale, CAUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$18,401$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$16,615  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$8,804$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio13.46  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock65284573
 Students per Counselor331  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock3.6%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.2.0%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock93.2%88.9%
 Some College Educ.14.0%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock5.4%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.62.8%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock28.9%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.8%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock6.5%1.5%
Reviews for Columbia    28 Reviews

Over 6 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 Sunnyvale    14 Reviews

At this point, I would only recommend moving to silicon valley for the job market. Sure, the weather is great and the restaurants offer huge variety. But the costs of  More

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Like previous reviewer, tech company's tyranny over city gov and quality of living has negatively impacted a fantastic place to live. Climate, while super, is grossly  More

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I've lived here for 40 years. While the weather is fabulous, For the past ten years of high density housing mostly needed to house thousands of a young up coming tech  More

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