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

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Highlights
- Columbia spends 9.5% more per student than Santa Cruz.
- The Student Teacher Ratio is 38.4% lower in Columbia than in Santa Cruz. (lower means fewer students in each classroom).
- Columbia had 0.5% fewer residents who had graduated High School compared to Santa Cruz
 Santa Cruz, CAColumbia, MDUnited States
 Expend. per Student  Unlock$17,912$15,905
 Educ. Expend. per Student$13,552  Unlock$13,142
 Instr. Expend. per Student  Unlock$11,381$7,999
 Pupil/Teacher Ratio21.84  Unlock16.23
 Students per Librarian  Unlock3634573
 Students per Counselor473  Unlock530
 Grade School Educ.  Unlock2.8%4.8%
 Some High School Educ.1.9%  Unlock6.3%
 High School Educ.  Unlock95.2%88.9%
 Some College Educ.19.7%  Unlock20.0%
 2 yr College Grad.  Unlock5.7%8.7%
 4 yr College Grad.56.6%  Unlock33.7%
 Masters Grad.  Unlock23.4%9.3%
 Professional Degree4.9%  Unlock2.2%
 Doctorate Degree  Unlock5.7%1.5%
Reviews for Santa Cruz    44 Reviews

I lived in the Santa Cruz area for 20 years. UCSC alum. Our kids were born there. There are wonderful things about Santa Cruz, but also many serious problems that we  More

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Over 5 years ago

I have been here for four generations! My kids are the fifth. I guess that should tell you how wonderful it is here, at least for us. It's so cool to have world class  More

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I was born over the hill in San Jose area, and as a kid I loved coming over to the boardwalk. Santa Cruz has always been and always will be a town of diversity,  More

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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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