I know people tend to rag on community college but I was offered 5 interviews out of 9 schools applied to with all of my pre-reqs from a local community college. Additionally, I'd recommend Shoreline CC as my education there has been great (except for Physics which has been a joke but that's not too big of a deal). It's all over these boards, as long as you have a good reason for community college and are showing improvement I don't think it's as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be. At my NYU interview my interviewer scoffed when I asked if my community college coursework would hurt me. In fact, at the UW, Kathy Craig responded to the same concern by letting me know that many students apply with community college courses on their transcripts. UoP didn't even bring it up and the UW interviewers tend to just scrutinize everything about you as a candidate so just have a good answer for all of your potentially negative attributes. I think I read on here awhile back that the real equalizer for non-traditional students is the DAT because it shows whether your courses are teaching the proper requirements for dental school. They just don't want you trying to take the easy way out but if you've explored all other avenues, you have a reason (let alone how near impossible it is to find student loans with a degree and when you aren't enrolled in a specific program. additionally, private loans are also a joke right now even with great credit).
Anyways, my advice: take courses at a community college and try and take the upper level ones at the UW as a non-matriculated if you can afford it. I couldn't so I ended up taking Micro, Bio, Chemistry I-III, Anatomy, Organic I-III, etc at Shoreline and Biochemistry through WSU online (actually a very detailed course... video taped lectures and proctored exams with high standards which satisfies the UW Dental School's pre-requisite). I had an interview at the UW but was ultimately denied as I have no research and not a ton of community service due to working full time for most of this process. I had interviews at UoP, UW, NYU, Western and Midwestern but turned Western and Midwestern down after an acceptance at NYU.
I was in exactly the same situation two years ago and read through all the hype and just chose to do it the only way that made sense to me and it worked. I hope this information helps you out some; this whole process is pretty stressful for non-traditional students trying to get back into school so feel free to PM if you have any questions about it.
