2025 Compare Cities Education:
Columbia, SC vs Sarasota, FL

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Highlights
- Sarasota spends 21.6% less per student than Columbia.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 0.1% higher in Sarasota than in Columbia. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Sarasota had 0.1% more residents who had graduated High School compared to Columbia
 Columbia, SCSarasota, FLUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$13,454$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$14,952  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$7,593$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio15.36  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock8684573
 Students per Counselor336  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock3.6%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.7.3%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock90.5%88.9%
 Some College Educ.18.8%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock8.1%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.44.7%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock10.3%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.5%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock2.4%1.5%
Reviews for Columbia    50 Reviews

Over 2 years ago

I love living in Columbia! I recently graduated from USC and plan to stay. I read the reviews posted here and it shows that like many cities, your experience will depend  More

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Loved living in Columbia, SC prior to my job transfer. It's the perfect size - plenty to do, but still a laid back place. People are extremely friendly, there are  More

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Columbia is such a unique and underrated place. It has a lot of character and history, and good nature trails. Everything feels accessible (by car) and you can get from  More

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Reviews for Sarasota    105 Reviews

Sarasota is my home from birth but those of us who have lived here long enough to have seen the devolution of what was once an easy to navigate, clean, low crime beach  More

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Starting to love Sarasota: Wife and I moved to Osprey- a small suburb between Sarasota and Venice. We're about 13 miles to downtown Sarasota, so not "city dwellers".   More

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As always, anyone considering moving to anyplace new, including Sarasota, needs to come down and spend a month or two before actually moving here. The city is overrun  More

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