COSC - My Honest Opinion

[cannacollege]

Given that most of their programs are technically a major in General Studies with a concentration in [whatever], I'm actually glad they don't list it.

How was your experience at COSC if you don't mind me asking?

[akr680]

I recently completed my AA - General Studies at COSC and will be done with my BA - General Studies in a couple of months. I wanted to share a little bit about my experience at COSC and why I chose COSC over TESU. I don't have a whole lot of feedback, as my experience has been mostly positive. 

- The staff/faculty are real human beings with names. The school has a fairly small faculty/staff. Everyone I've spoken to has been EXTREMELY helpful. They do a really good job of hiring caring people. 

- It's affordable AF! Seriously. If you only take the 2 required classes at COSC, you have yourself a pretty sweet deal. I spent around $3200 for both classes. I was able to use their payment plan system, which was helpful being that I'm broke and paying out of pocket (TESU does not allow a payment plan for most students. I confirmed this myself). I used Sophia and StraighterLine to fulfill my gen ed requirements, which cost me about $350-400. Also, there is NO GRADUATION FEE as of July 2021. That saved me $225. 

- Continuous credit transfers: Once enrolled, you can continue to transfer in credits even after you've completed your required courses. This makes it easy to get registered and started on your required courses right away. The school is also pretty fast with updating your academic evaluation once enrolled.    

Now on to my complaints:

- Well, just one complaint. They do not state your major on your diploma. I think this is pretty insane, being that it would cost them nothing to do so. But your major/concentration does show on your transcript, which I guess is all that really matters. 

Overall, my experience at COSC has been smooth. If you're looking for a simple way to complete your degree, I'd definitely recommend COSC. 


Sophia: 22 credits | StraighterLine: 1 credit (Bio Lab) | Prior College Credits + WGU: 90+ Credits


In Progress: COSC BA - General Studies - Liberal Studies

Completed: COSC AA - General Studies

Awesome!

How is the cornerstone and capstone structured?

Is it easy compared to TESU?


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[SteveFoerster]

Given that most of their programs are technically a major in General Studies with a concentration in [whatever], I'm actually glad they don't list it.

How was your experience at COSC if you don't mind me asking?

Very good, which is why I've been on the Alumni Association Board for years. But I'll admit that my experience is very old, I graduated in 2005.

Now, my eldest just graduated from there in 2020, with the same concentration as his old man, and his experience was pretty good too, so... there's that. 

[jsd]

I was under the impression they stopped doing the "gen studies with concentration," but perhaps I'm mistaken

[SteveFoerster]

I was under the impression they stopped doing the "gen studies with concentration," but perhaps I'm mistaken

No, they still have them. They also have programs they refer to as majors. It's a distinction without a difference, but I gather keeping it that way is easier than changing everything through NEASC.

[Skirtlet]

I'm glad your experience with COSC has been smooth. 

I applied to COSC in June and am still waiting for a transfer credit review (partly my fault for not getting them AP scores from the start). Still, I feel like I'm going back and forth with them in e-mails and am talking to a brick wall. My experience with COSC has been very frustrating and honestly feels like a complete waste of time/$ (mostly time) since I've already enrolled at another college since COSC dragged their feet so many months. I still have no idea how many credits I would have needed at COSC to get a degree. 

2 classes for $3200 isn't cheap to me, but it's probably a decent deal for online. If that's all you had left, it sounds like COSC was a good value for you. I've heard that COSC is very generous with accepting transfer credits, so it does seem like a wonderful option for many people.

[studyingfortests]

I'm glad your experience with COSC has been smooth. 

I applied to COSC in June and am still waiting for a transfer credit review (partly my fault for not getting them AP scores from the start). Still, I feel like I'm going back and forth with them in e-mails and am talking to a brick wall.

In my experience (two separate sets of conversations, several years apart... a false start back to school...)  the (same) admissions advisor assigned to me was impossible to reach and very slow to respond to anything. The person would email me, I'd respond literally 30 seconds later with the information, and, literally, no response for over a week.  On more than one occasion.  Various excuses... "out of the office" ... "busy"... "on leave"...   So if you happened to get that particular person, that may be the issue.

Once I finally wrote to the admissions director, Bob Frederick, he took me on himself, made time the next day for a phone consult, and was extremely responsive. Unfortunately, he retired.  Most recently, I worked with Shawn Hallliday, who was also extremely responsive. I ended up at TESU because needing half of the number of UL credits at TESU compared to COSC, and having nearly all my credits accepted (COSC found various reasons to not accept large numbers of my credits) made it a no-brainer.

I've wondered how many people go somewhere else because of this particular admissions advisor, or if my experience, several years apart, just happened to be a fluke.

[Skirtlet]

Your advisor sounds like mine. She'll email, I'll email back minutes later, then not hear back for weeks. I get out of office replies or just silence. I'm sure they are busy, but it was very frustrating. I'm (sort of) glad that it's not just me who has had a frustrating COSC admissions experience.

[Skirtlet]

COSC would be one of my last resort schools personally. They accept a lot of transfer credits, but not as many as some schools. I applied for an associate last June. COSC is incredibly slow. I applied in June and didn't have a transfer credit report for many months. I would still have to take 17 credits at COSC- even though I have an ungodly amount of credits. For some reason, they accepted nothing from sophia.org for me, even though my sophia.org grades are all A's. Interacting with COSC advisors is much like talking to a brick wall- not as bad as University of the People, but far worse than any random local community college or open enrollment school I've ever interacted with. Financial aid doesn't happen until after advising... and advising can take many, many months. I had to send AP transcripts from many years ago before they would be start my transfer credit report. That's fine, but I wish they would have told me before I had already waited for them for months. I should've sent them, sure, but COSC was still insanely slow. I had already applied to and graduated from Pierpont CTC before COSC was even done evaluating my credits lol.

[vanglorious]

COSC would be one of my last resort schools personally. They accept a lot of transfer credits, but not as many as some schools. I applied for an associate last June. COSC is incredibly slow. I applied in June and didn't have a transfer credit report for many months. I would still have to take 17 credits at COSC- even though I have an ungodly amount of credits. For some reason, they accepted nothing from sophia.org for me, even though my sophia.org grades are all A's. Interacting with COSC advisors is much like talking to a brick wall- not as bad as University of the People, but far worse than any random local community college or open enrollment school I've ever interacted with. Financial aid doesn't happen until after advising... and advising can take many, many months. I had to send AP transcripts from many years ago before they would be start my transfer credit report. That's fine, but I wish they would have told me before I had already waited for them for months. I should've sent them, sure, but COSC was still insanely slow. I had already applied to and graduated from Pierpont CTC before COSC was even done evaluating my credits lol.

What courses at Sophia.org did you take and what 17 credits besides the corner/cap did they say you need? They are partnered with Sophia so if they state you are missing specific Gen Ed courses you can have them reassess. They KNOW what they are doing and they are trying to force people to take more units with them.