City Colleges of Chicago – Harold Washington College

7500 S Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL

City Colleges of Chicago Harold Washington College (HWC) is located in downtown Chicago in the Loop area, and serves the urban higher education needs of its community. With about 9,000 students enrolled per year, HWC offers associate degree credit courses and other certification programs at affordable rates. The college offers 10 associate degree programs and numerous certificate courses, apart from continuing and retraining education opportunities.

Founded as Loop Junior College in 1962, HWC is named after Chicago’s first African-American Mayor. The college was renamed mere weeks after the untimely death of the Mayor, who was a strong advocate of the City Colleges of Chicago. The new facilities were occupied in 1982, two years prior to the renaming.

HWC offers courses in several areas of study, some of which are designed for vocational education and others as a foundation for further study at a four-year college. Offering an A to Z of courses from Afro-American Studies to Zoology, HWC provides for the needs of the community at an affordable price, making it accessible to a large percentage of the Chicago population.

Apart from its core curriculum of general education programs, HWC also has several extracurricular activity options through its many student clubs and organizations. Its focus on diversity can be seen from its ethnicity profile, which shows a near-equal racial distribution across several ethnic groups.

Their safety record, along with their focus on diversity and inclusion, makes it an ideal campus for full-and part-time students to pursue higher education and take advantage of higher paying jobs and better career opportunities.