Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities at City Colleges of Chicago-Olive-Harvey College

Olive-Harvey's liberal arts associate degree lands graduates squarely in the middle of the pack—both nationally (42nd percentile) and within Illinois (40th percentile). The $26,232 first-year earnings lag behind what you'll find at other Chicago-area community colleges, where nearby City Colleges like Malcolm X and Daley are placing liberal arts graduates into jobs paying $6,000-$7,000 more annually. That gap matters when you're trying to pay down student loans on an entry-level salary.

The debt picture offers some reassurance: at $9,500, it's manageable and slightly below the national median, though it's actually higher than Illinois's typical $7,761 for this degree. The 0.36 debt-to-earnings ratio means graduates should be able to handle loan payments, but the math gets tighter when earnings are already modest. For context, other Illinois community colleges are producing similar outcomes with less debt burden.

The fundamental question is opportunity cost. If your child is committed to staying in the City Colleges system for convenience or cost reasons, Olive-Harvey works—the debt won't be crushing. But if they can access other nearby community colleges (Prairie State and Lincoln Land are producing graduates earning $34,000+), that extra $8,000 in first-year earnings quickly justifies any additional commute time or minor tuition differences. This is a functional path to an associate degree, not an optimized one.