After spending a year in that province, the family returned to Hall where he entered the Ecole Normale de Costa Rica, being a student of renowned professors such as Fernando Vargas Fernández Gámez Solano Uladislaus "Don Lalo" and Marco Tulio Salazar Salazar.

On 13 December 1946, Carlos Meléndez concluded secondary education, having passed exams in high school.

He earned a BA in Literature and Philosophy with a major in History and Geography in 1952 at the University of Costa Rica [1].

He was Director of the Department of History and Geography (now School of the Faculty of Social Sciences), University of Costa Rica between 1960 and 1969.

[citation needed] With Quince Duncan he wrote that the life of enslaved woman Ana Cardoso was one that was common, but often unrecorded, and a significant contributor to the development of Costa Rican society.