Hi there sotired! Even though I already responded to your PM, I'll post here just in case anyone else has the same question.
COSC does allow you split up payment. $930 is a lot of money, but may be manageable over the course of a few paychecks depending on your situation. It's one of the benefits of COSC: Maybe it's cheaper or maybe more expensive overall than TESC based on how you manage your tests, but COSC does not require all your cash at once.
I would not recommend the FAFSA unless you absolutely cannot pay the money out of pocket even once you split it up based on the payment options they'll allow. FAFSA is a hassle with forms to fill out, then they have to go through COSC and you do have to pay it back. I had to go through FAFSA for my graduate courses due to the high cost, but I really wish I could pay cash without seriously compromising my family's finances. The other strange thing I noticed about FAFSA was that they loan the amount that they think is correct, not what you need.
My understanding of the process is that they look at some factors in your credit history and then look at what undergrad students at your school will pay. They make the loan according to this number. So, if a typical COSC undergrad pays 5k during a year, that would most likely be the amount of your loan, not the $930 you actually need. I guess this isn't a problem. You can get the money and then turn around and pay them back, but still a hassle if you can avoid it.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, it's just what I noticed with my graduate loan. My program doesn't cost quite as much as a typical MBA at my school because it's geared towards international students, but FAFSA seemed to base the loan on what I would be paying if I were in the traditional MBA program, so my loan was more than I needed.
The funny thing is that the $930 cost for one course is actually CHEAP by higher education standards when compared to almost any other institution other than perhaps a community college! I can't even imagine paying that much money per class. We are just so lucky we found a way to save a lot of money through CLEP/DSST.
Last thought - I totally agree with Rebel in that the Capstone will fully prepare you for graduate school. I would have been a wreck in the first few weeks of my MBA if I didn't have the online classwork experience and not to mention what I learned about APA citation in the Capstone. If I didn't know that, I wouldn't have made it through my first paper! I have said this here a bunch, but for ANYONE reading this who thinks that they may possibly some day enter grad school, do NOT test entirely out of college, even if you can. You really need to take a class or two in order to prepare you for the future. I would not want my very first day in a "real" classroom, online or otherwise, to be at a 600-level class. I think everyone is scared on their first day of grad school for good reason - it's hard! But, it would be all the harder if your only college experience is at the testing center.