Only legal residents of American Samoa who have graduated from high school or obtained a General Equivalency Diploma are admitted to ASCC.

Also associated with the college are a nursing school at LBJ Hospital and vocational facilities in the Tafuna Industrial Complex.

The college was granted one-year accreditation in 1973 and received entitlement to funds under the Higher Education Act of 1963.

When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints closed its Mapusaga High School in 1974, the government of American Samoa purchased the buildings for $1.5 million (equivalent to $7,212,000 in 2023), signed a 50-year lease for the 20-acre (8.1 ha) property, and moved the college here.

ASCC received a $1.5 million federal grant in 1978 (equivalent to $5,501,000 in 2023) in order to establish a Teacher Corps project to improve the teaching quality.

[7] In 1979, Sa'euteuga Le'au Scanlan became the first Samoan female college president.

[8] In 1979, the U.S. Economic Development Administration provided a grant that allowed the college to add five modern buildings for the fine arts, nursing, science, and vocational training.

New administrative offices, lecture hall and two new teacher education classrooms were added in 2008.

The computer and science labs were renovated and upgraded with funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in 2011.