Frequently Asked Questions

The ALI Office is located at 649 W 34th Street. The office is located on the first floor of the Royal Street Structure in Room 106. The office entrance is off W 34th Street. There is no entrance from Jefferson Blvd.

The ALI Office is open Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. The office is closed on weekends and on university holidays.

If you have the ALI 01 restriction, it means that you need to take the International Student English (ISE) Exam before registering for classes. You should take the ISE Exam as soon as possible since you will not be able to register until you receive your ISE Exam results.

If your admission letter states that you have a continuing registration requirement, it means that you must satisfy a certain requirement before you register for classes. One of these requirements may have to do with English proficiency.

For information regarding the university’s English language proficiency requirement for admission into an undergraduate or graduate program, please visit the sites below.

Students must send their scores electronically through the testing service for scores to be considered official. Photocopies or paper copies of scores are not acceptable. Please allow up to 14 business days for processing.

Students will not be able to send test scores once they begin their degree program. Scores must be received the Friday before classes begin.

TOEFL: USC’s institution code is 4852. No department code is required.

IELTS: Select “University of Southern California” from the list of available institutions when you register to take the IELTS test. Alternatively, provide this information to your testing center after you have taken the test. Contact information for the USC department to which you are applying is not required.

PTE: Select “University of Southern California” from the list of available institutions when you register to take the PTE Academic test. Alternatively, provide this information to your testing center after you have taken the test. Contact information for the USC department to which you are applying is not required.

1. Make sure your USC email account has been activated so we can email your exam results. If you haven’t activated your email account yet, go to itservices.usc.edu/uscnetid and click on “Activate your USC NetID”.
2. Take the ISE Exam.
3. After taking the exam, you will receive an email with your test results and further instructions.
4. You can then visit USC Web Registration to register for classes.
5. Before registering online, you may need to clear any other registration restrictions you have and see an advisor in your department.

You will need to email askali@usc.edu with your 10-digit USC ID number from your USC email to request the ALI 01 Hold be removed. The ALI Office will review and verify your records before any requests can be completed.

All students who have an ALI requirement will continue to have the ALI restriction until the requirement is satisfied. During registration, the restriction will be temporarily removed so that students can use web registration to register for their ALI courses, as well as their major courses. Students will be notified by email when this happens and will be given a deadline by which they must register for all their courses. After this deadline, students with an ALI requirement will see the ALI hold back on their account.

If you need to add or drop a class after your ALI hold reappears on your account, you may do the following:

• If you need to add or drop a non-ALI class, email USC Registrar One Stop via their contact page. Your email must be sent from your USC email account and must include your student ID number and the five-digit section numbers of the classes you want to add or drop. All requests will be processed by their staff as soon as possible during normal business hours.
• If you would like to add or drop an ALI course, please email askali@usc.edu.

Please reach out to The Office of Student Accessibility Services (OSAS). OSAS is responsible for the determination of appropriate accommodations for students who encounter disability-related barriers. Once you receive approval, please reach out to the ALI Office or your ALI Course Instructor with your approval letter.

You may contact OSAS at (213) 740-0776 or via email at osasfrontdesk@usc.edu.

Please visit the Office of International Services (OIS) for more information.

For additional advice, the ALI Advisor is available to help with any questions. You may email askali@usc.edu.

The ISE Exam is a free placement exam given to determine the English proficiency of international students. After taking the ISE Exam, students are either “released” from any ALI requirement or will receive an ALI placement.

The ISE Exam is a two-part exam:

Written Portion: Students have 50 minutes to complete a written exam on a given topic.

Oral Interview: Students are interviewed by two raters for approximately 12-15 minutes.

Both parts of the test are graded on a scale of 0-7. Students who score 6 or above will not be required to take ALI courses. The oral interview may be on a different day than the written portion. You will be given information about the time of your oral interview when you take the written portion.

You can sign up for the ISE Exam at https://websites.usc.edu/ALI/ExamScheduler/

On the day of the exam, check-in will begin 30 minutes before the exam start time. Please report to the testing location no later than 15 minutes before the exam. Be sure to bring the following:

• Your fully charged laptop on which you successfully completed the Technology Check.
• Your USC ID or passport for identification, ready to show.

If you cannot attend the ISE Exam that is currently posted on the website, you may check back on or after that test date for additional tests. We recommend that you take it as soon as possible because you will not be able to register for any classes until after you receive your ISE Exam results.

Please email askali@usc.edu with your USC ID number to be removed from the exam. You may check back on or after that test date to sign up for the next exam.

Students who meet certain conditions may not be required to take the ISE Exam.

If you meet one of the conditions and still have an ALI-01 hold, please email askali@usc.edu with your name and USC ID number from your USC email account.

The ITA Exam is a ten to fifteen minute interview with two examiners. The exam has two parts: A brief interview in which the candidate talks about his or her educational experience and interest in graduate studies at USC followed by an explanation of a term or concept in the candidate’s field. Two terms or concepts will be given to students 24 hours prior to the exam so that they can prepare a simulated classroom presentation on one of those terms or concepts. The two terms are taken from a list of terms determined by the student’s department. The examiners will act as students and will ask questions about the term.

The ITA oral interview is required for all graduate students for whom English is not their native language and who wish to be considered for a TA award at the university. This requirement is for all international students regardless of visa, residency, citizenship status, or educational background.

Request an appointment at itatest@usc.edu.

Exam results will be sent to students’ USC email account.

Students may only take the ITA Exam once a year, with the exception that ITAs enrolled in ALI classes will take the ITA Exam again upon completion of their ALI class.

All new ITAs receive a Pending Test (PT) restriction. This restriction will prevent an ITA from receiving tuition assistance until they have demonstrated adequate English proficiency or enrolled in their required ALI class. ITAs who have scored a 6 or higher on the ITA Exam will have their PT restrictions removed. ITAs with an ALI class requirement will have their restrictions removed provided they have enrolled in their required ALI class.

All students who have an ALI requirement will continue to have the ALI restriction until the requirement is satisfied. During registration, the restriction will be temporarily removed so that students can use web registration. Students will be notified by email when this happens.If you need to add or drop a class after web registration closes, you may do the following:

1. If you need to add or drop a non-ALI class, email USC Registrar One Stop via their contact page. Your email must be sent from your USC email account and must include your student ID number and the 5 digit section numbers of the classes you want to add or drop. All requests will be processed by their staff as soon as possible during normal business hours.
2. If you would like to add or drop an ALI course, please email askali@usc.edu with your USC ID number.

ALI courses must be taken starting the first semester and continued each semester thereafter until all required course(s) are completed. ALI courses cannot be deferred. ALI courses are taken concurrently with major courses.

ALI classes are billed at the regular USC tuition rate.

The number of ALI courses you need to take will depend on your English proficiency level which will be determined from the ISE Exam, however the most courses you will be required to take and pass is two. Your writing and oral skills will be evaluated when you take the ISE Exam. You may be placed in a writing and/or oral skills class. After taking the required ALI course, you may have another course assigned or be released from ALI courses.

Given the nature of the curriculum and the format of ALI classes, joining a section after the first week of the semester places a student at a severe disadvantage in terms of the goals and requirements of the course. For this reason, requests to change sections after the first week are usually denied. On the basis of extraordinary circumstances, a student may initiate an exception request to the ALI Advisor (askali@usc.edu). Such requests require both administrative and instructor approval.

Undergraduate Student Consultants (uSCs) work on a personalized, individual basis with ITAs to help them overcome any challenges they face. They supplement ALI courses in helping ITAs learn about American teaching styles, effective English communication skills and culture. uSCs are ready to help in whatever areas an ITA may need.

An ITA is an International Teaching Assistant. They come from various disciplines and nationalities to pursue their Ph.D. at USC. As a part of their program, they are required to fill the role of a teaching assistant for an undergraduate introductory course and they work with uSCs to help them prepare for this position.

uSCs are expected to build a relationship with their ITA based on confidentiality and respect. ITAs are typically older than their uSC and have more academic experience. In turn, ITAs should respect the expertise that uSCs bring to the program as they share their English and cultural knowledge. Ideally, ITAs and uSCs will mutually learn from each other and work together on improving the ITA’s English performance.

The uSC-ITA program is designed to be flexible to meet your needs and your schedule. You do not need to follow a conventional classroom schedule — you may want to meet mornings, evenings or even on weekends. You will meet wherever is convenient for you, including libraries, outside, classrooms, Zoom Video calls and coffee shops.

Each uSC is a member of a select group of students who have been specially chosen based on their excellence in academic achievement, their solid English language skills and their proven ability to work with people from other cultures. Many are bicultural and bilingual themselves. They have received intensive training to participate in this program. ​

BRFs stands for “bi-weekly report” forms which are used to track uSC hours. At the end of each pay period (every other Wednesday) these forms are due at 12 p.m. Wednesday. uSCs use these forms to describe what they have done with their ITA for that two week period, allowing their instructor to know about progress being made and any identified problem areas. Assistants are then responsible for checking each BRF that is submitted via Blackboard to ensure that each uSC is meeting with their ITA for the correct amount of hours (typically four). The hours reported on each BRF are then entered into the uSC/ITA tracking sheet. uSCs get paid 15 minutes per BRF.

The TLC report is technically the first BRF; however, it should only consist of two hours per uSC/ITA pair because these two hours are the first time they are meeting which usually occurs at the Matching Mixer. TLC reports are just a brief overview of goals for the semester and any initial questions uSCs might have for their instructor.

International Teaching Assistants must go through the ALI program in order to improve their English and teaching skills. At the end of every semester, they have an important exam that determines whether they can graduate from the program or not. This consists of giving a mock PowerPoint presentation to a panel of instructors on a topic that is relevant to their area of study. uSCs can help their ITAs prepare for this exam by refining their teaching skills, pronunciation, word choice, articulation and confidence when explaining new ideas. In the event that an ITA does not pass the exam, they continue in the ALI program until they do and will likely be paired again with more uSCs for aid.