City Colleges
of Chicago-Harry S Truman College
Public Community College in Chicago, IL. Six-year graduation rate 32%. Median 10-year earnings $36,484.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $36,484, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 32% graduate within six years. Median debt at graduation is $6,997, a light load against those earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.19 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 32% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 32% graduate within six years. Retention is weak: only 59% of full-time first-years return, so roughly two in five leave after one year. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. Transfer-out runs to 17% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Part-time students fare worse, returning at 43% — relevant if you plan to work while enrolled.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,248 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $8,400 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($7,362 versus $11,489), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid reaches 58% of students at an average of $5,606. Only 2% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 343 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $7,362 |
| $30–48k | $8,214 |
| $48–75k | $8,859 |
| $75–110k | $12,094 |
| $110k+ | $11,489 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 56 of these 2,248 students, totalling $360,239 — an average of $6,433 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cook County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)