COSC no longer one of the 'big 3'

[cookderosa]

COSC makes it more difficult to complete degrees because if you take a break they charge an almost $300 'student fee' for the privilege of not being withdrawn as a student.  You don't have to pay it but then you have to be rematriculated and will likely lose credits. 
They also are now only accepting 3 FEMA credits.

There is now only a 'Big 2'

We'll be paying that fee for our oldest - he's taking his cornerstone in January but won't take his capstone until this summer. Honestly, it's annoying, but not a deal breaker over here. I'll pay $300 (several times) to save $50,000 and that's exactly what we're doing. My son's tuition to COSC will be $1100 per class (he is receiving a 10% Straighterline scholarship) so that's only $2200. Throw in his fees, we're still killing it.

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Plus COSC has the GRE option.

...that no one uses.

I did ask COSC about using the GRE for degrees that aren't in the same subject, and their answer wasn't definitive.

It is in their exam chart- each exam has a little letter by it saying what it provides. COSC allows you to use 1 class to check multiple boxes, so as an example, a GRE in biology with a passing score checks () Liberal Arts () Natural Science () Elective () upper level ... and maybe others, I'm going from memory, but it doesn't matter what your degree is in, you still have to check all the boxes. *which is why their degree planning is really complex and pretty confusing imo.

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Also, Charter Oak is the ONLY option for students who are 16 or 17 years old.

Liberty University and Bluefield are also options at that age, but both are absolutely Christian colleges which may not work for some. Additionally, Brigham Young doesn't have any age or grade limits AT ALL for their indy courses - you could take these in elementary school if you wanted!
Liberty and Bluefield both purposefully have dual enrollment that starts at grade 10 (any age) that aligns with their AA / BA with the obvious encouragement of having you complete a full degree with them. (which is about ten grand higher than through the big 3, even when you're really maxing out transfer)
It really depends on what you want- if you want CLASSES for young people, they have them (Bluefield is really cheap too) but then a person could transfer to COSC/TESU/EC when old enough if they wanted max transfer and the cheapest overall degree.