Special Program Admissions

High school students, including home-schooled students, may take certain designated College courses, if the following conditions are met:

1. Completion of a total of 13 or more high school units.
2. All high school students must complete the Free Class Waiver even if they are not using the form for tuition discount. You can obtain the form from the SSC Circle, the College & Career Success Center of the College as well as at ssc.edu. (The signature of the high school principle or counselor is required for students to be allowed to enroll in College courses.)
3. High School Counselors are required to sign off that the student completed the 13 high school credit hours before the student can enroll in college courses.
4. Student must see an SSC Counselor for approval where it will be determined that all course prerequisites have been completed.
5. For a course that has no prerequisites, high school students do not need to take the placement test or provide ACT scores in order to be eligible to use the Free Class Waiver.
6. Completion of the Placement test, except for physical education courses.
7. Fulfillment of proper prerequisites and/or developmental courses for the courses in which they are enrolling.

An international student is a citizen of a country other than the United States who is authorized to remain in the United States for a temporary period as a non-immigrant (F-1 student visa) and who intends to return to his or her home country.

Admission – An international student who plans to attend South Suburban college must take the following steps to begin classes at the college.

1. Complete, sign and submit the International Student Application Form and submit the South Suburban College Credit Admissions Application.
2. 1. If a student is being sponsored, the sponsor must complete and sign the Affidavit of Sponsor. This affidavit must be accompanied by an original, signed letter from the bank showing the funds $16,000 USD as being available for the student’s first 12 months of study and an original, signed letter from the employer showing salary or income in U.S. Dollars. If self-employed, provide an original bank letter stating business account balance. The affidavit must be stamped by a notary public or bank official and sent directly to the International Student faculty counselor. In lieu of an Affidavit of Sponsor, the sponsor may choose to submit an INS Form I-134, Affidavit of Support.
   2. If a student is NOT being sponsored, that student is responsible for submitting an Affidavit of Support complete with the two letters of support mentioned above.
3. Official score report of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) must be sent directly to South Suburban College. You may call or email TOEFL at (609) 771-7243 for more information. South Suburban College requires a score of 40 internet-based, and 173 on the computer-based test. The TOEFL test is required in all cases except citizens of England and Canada.
4. Submit the Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE) form with required documents and payment directly to ECE for evaluation of your secondary school education. They will send an evaluation report to South Suburban College. They can be reached directly at www.ece.org. You may also use World Educational Services.
5. Students need to provide evidence of insurance coverage.

All documents listed above in Numbers 1 through 5 must be submitted to the following address:

All documents for admission must be received before July 1 for the Fall semester and before November 1 for the Spring semester. Upon approval of the completed applications and documents, South Suburban College will issue an I-20 form. Please take the I-20 form and your current passport to the nearest United States Embassy or Consulate to obtain the F-1 student visa.

6. TRANSFER STUDENTS: F-1 visa students who want to transfer to South Suburban College must submit items 1-5 in addition to copies of their current school I-20 form and a transcript or letter from the school showing dates of enrollment and eligibility to transfer along with the above information.

If admitted, all international students must register for a minimum of 12 semester hours of study each semester of the academic year. It is the policy of the College to notify U.S. Immigration when students on F-1 Visas fail to register for classes before completing their program of study. Any student classified as a international student will be assessed the out-of-state tuition rate. More information is available from the International student faculty counselor in the College & Career Success Center, (708) 596-2000, ext. 5724.

International students must reenroll with assistance of an International Student counselor.

South Suburban College is a member of the Illinois Consortium for International Studies and Programs (ICISP), a consortium of two and four-year colleges in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Through ICISP and other institutions, South Suburban College offers opportunities to participate in semester-long or summer study abroad programs in a broad variety of countries. Semester-long and summer programs are offered in France, Austria, Spain, Ireland, and China, as well as summer programs in many other countries.

The South Suburban College Foundation also offers summer study abroad scholarships to programs in Africa, China, and Spain. These scholarships cover the cost of air travel to and from the target county, and all program fees associated with the summer programs. All programs include courses which may be used to fulfill degree/certificate requirements or as electives of the transfer degree.

To qualify for admission to these ICISP programs, students must have completed 15 hours of college-level courses at SSC and have a minimum grade point average of 3.0. There are additional requirements for scholarship consideration.

For more information contact the Office of International Study (708) 596-2000, ext. 2241 or 2574 or see the International Studies homepage.