EDUCATION REPORT - February 27, 2003: Foreign Student Series #24: Orange Coast Community College
By Nancy Steinbach This is the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT

Today, we report on one of the largest community colleges in the United States as we continue our Foreign Student Series. This series tells about how to attend an American college or university.

Students generally attend a community college for two years. Orange Coast College is in southern California, in the city of Costa Mesa -- between Los Angeles and San Diego. The school has about 24,000 students. It offers more than 100 programs to train students for jobs. It also prepares students who want to complete their studies at a four-year college or university.

Foreign students who want to attend Orange Coast College must earn a score of at least five-hundred on the written Test of English as a Foreign Language. They must score at least 173 on the computer TOEFL.

Foreign students must also take tests in English and mathematics once they arrive. Each student has an adviser to help choose which classes to take.

The total cost to attend Orange Coast College for one year is about 13,000 dollars. This includes three-thousand dollars for classes. Housing and food cost 6,000 dollars. The rest of the cost is for books and other supplies and health insurance.

Orange Coast College does not provide housing for its students. Foreign students can use the International Student Center at the school to find local families to live with. The center also helps foreign students prepare any necessary documents, choose activities and plan for trips.

Since nineteen-ninety-five, more than five-thousand-five-hundred foreign students have attended Orange Coast College. Many come from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but students have come from more than ninety countries in all.

College officials say most foreign students are in programs to train for work. Others are preparing to attend a four-year college or university. Many are studying business or computer science.

Orange Coast College is on the Internet at www.occ.cccd.edu. And our Foreign Student Series is on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com.

This VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT was written by Nancy Steinbach.