2025 Compare Cities Education:
Ottumwa, IA vs Lake Forest, CA

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Highlights
- Lake Forest spends 30.3% more per student than Ottumwa.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 60.1% higher in Lake Forest than in Ottumwa. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Lake Forest had 7.4% more residents who had graduated High School compared to Ottumwa
 Ottumwa, IALake Forest, CAUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$15,277$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$10,227  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$8,037$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio14.5  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock163834573
 Students per Counselor441  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock3.4%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.6.9%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock93.0%88.9%
 Some College Educ.21.4%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock9.3%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.19.6%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock12.4%9.3%
 Professional Degree1.4%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock1.9%1.5%
Reviews for Ottumwa    5 Reviews

Over 12 years ago

Ottumwa has a seemingly high rate of theft-related crimes as well as drug use which I'm sure correlates to the incidences of assault. For a community of 20-30,000, the  More

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Over 16 years ago

ottumwa, Iowa has no diverse culture. It is not very open especially when it comes to branching out to new ideas of others culture...The idea of culture here is the pro  More

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Over 17 years ago

Pros: 1. Extremely low cost of living and housing 2. Affordable place to live Cons: 1. High crime rate 2. Very poor school system 3. Economically depressed 4.  More

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Reviews for Lake Forest    16 Reviews

I've lived in Lake Forest for over a decade, before that elsewhere in OC and also up in LA. Lake Forest isn't perfect but it's really improved over the past decade,  More

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As a retired senior who has lived in Lake Forest (formerly El Toro) since 1977 I think LF is a great place if you can afford it. When we moved here in June '77 homes  More

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I’ve lived here for 2 years. Ok, it’s more like a 4 but there are so many idiots downplaying what it’s like here and giving Lake Forest ones and twos. There are a lot of  More

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