Best way to get missing pre-requisites? (Nontraditional applicant)

[jesse1333]

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Hi all,

I'm a recent Computer Science new grad that realized a bit late that software engineering is not for me and decided to look into dental. I have 2 years left of pre-reqs that I have not taken (all of bio, chem, and orgo) but have all of my math and physics classes covered. Most of these credits are from CC and not my four year, so I was wondering what paths would be recommended for getting these courses?

Post-bacc career changer programs seem to be the most straight forward, but they cost ~30k (which I don't want to spend on top of 200-400k for dental school itself) and I would need to wait an entire year to actually apply and get accepted (or not). Also, currently I am still in the process of getting volunteering and shadowing hours and will probably not have enough to use for my application for this cycle anyways.

So instead I thought of doing it through open enrollment doing a DIY post-bacc like through UCLA ext or CSU open enrollment (I'm LA based), but I was wondering how risky these would be in regards to classes filling up as missing a sequence could potentially delay my application for a while.

I also thought of going the community college route which would be the most straight forward and cost effective, but I heard that most dental schools either don't accept CC credit, limit them, or don't value them as highly.

I'm pretty torn as to what to do so any help or advice would be great. Thanks in advance!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Check with the admissions teams at the schools closest to you. Not all schools will have problems with CC, extension, or online courses, but you need to check first. If you just need to take prerequisites, the insight from those programs will help you decide how to move forward in a financially responsible way.

Read our resource on how to choose a postbac or SMP.

 

[steven_d]

Echoing what was already said-- check each school's admissions website and you can call or email each school.


Best of luck.

 

[jesse1333]

For context I'm a recent CS grad. Sounds pretty dumb but I finally got to admit to myself that I hate coding and want to do dentistry as a more fulfilling career working directly with people. For time & money constraints, it would be much easier to just take my credits at my local community college. Assuming that I only apply to schools that accept CC credit, how much of a detriment would it be to go this route as opposed to a DIY or formal post-bacc assuming all the other things (shadowing, DAT, volunteering, etc) go well?

Also, just wanted to mention I was also a transfer student from CC who completed my BS at USC. For stats:
CC GPA: 3.875
USC GPA: 3.51

Most of my lower grades at USC were from programming classes, and at CC I got all A's except two B's in physics (one was in electricity & magnetism and the other was quantum mechanics/relativity). I know that certain college don't accept or explicitly state that they don't like CC credit, and I don't know if admissions will look at my GPA and courses and feel that I was taking the easy way out due to my lower GPA at a university. Just wanted to make sure going down this route wouldn't be suicide, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[wysdoc]

@jesse1333 can you find a dentist to observe and spend time with for a while? Dentistry is a profession requiring a lot of patience, hours practice of hand skills, and organization, which is great for those who are good with their hands or can be very tedious in its own way for others.
Be sure you like it !
It depends on the community college but some will not offer classes like biochemistry. Be sure you are taking the classes in the respective science department (chem, bio) so they will have the amount of rigorous content you need.