Harder to get into dental hygienist school or nursing school?

Not quite sure where the previous posters are getting their information from, but in most areas Dental Hygiene is harder to get into because the number of schools offering the program is lower than those that offer the nursing programs.





This is not saying that nursing is a breeze to get into, but just looking logically at the numbers you can see the difference. For example in the state of Indiana, out of 24 community college only 5 do NOT offer a program for earning an associates degree in Nursing. Dental Hygiene is not even offered- the closest you can get is dental assisting.





Upon looking at the state of Illinois, I found that out of 41 community colleges only 12 offered a Dental Hygiene program. ALL offered a program in Nursing.





Granted these are just two states, but the sheer number of schools that offer Nursing is higher accross the nation. I have listed links below to verify what I have provided. Check for yourself- the programs crietria is usually posted on the schools web site.





There is not much of a difference in the prequisits; when I took microbiology, I was one of three students looking into dental hygiene. The class started with 36 students- I was the only one who passed that declared Dental Hygiene as being my major. When our class ended, I was in the top three students of the class and 20 were left- 18 nursing students and one respiratory therapist candidate, and then the lone dental hygiene student.





The dental hygiene school that I applied to only accepts 36 students per year. We have 6 local community colleges that feed into this school so they recieve in upwards of 180+ applications. All six schools have nursing programs (some of which have now started half year nursing programs to accomadate the number of students- Fall and Spring semester starts).





Check into your local area community colleges, look at the prereqs and see what differences you can come up with- I doubt that there are many. I did, I looked at nursing, respiratory therapy and radiology techonlogy before making my decision. (Out of my local six schools- 6 of 6 offered RN, 4 of 6 offered Rad Tech, 3 of 6 offered Resp Therapy and 2 of 6 offered DH.)





Good Luck- either choice would be a great career move.





I start my choice in May 2008. I took that same science classes that the nursing students did!

Harder to get into dental hygienist school or nursing school?
nursing school is usually harder to get into
Reply:nursing school. the community college in my county (monroe county, pa) has an average of 600 people apply about 60 are accepted and about 20 actually graduate. This info if from a person who was applying there and was told by the addmission staff. Dental hygenist school you basically just apply for college for. Also, dental hygenist make good money and have excellent job security.





http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes292021...
Reply:most nursing schools have waiting lists even though there is a shortage of nurses there is also a shortage of instructors


it is easier to get into dental hygienist school


and is also a good profession