Dental hygiene students working in clinic

Entry-Level Track

Prerequisites

Attention: Important changes were made for the below prerequisites for incoming application period 2023-24, please review them carefully.

Complete ALL prerequisites before applying is highly recommended. A limited number (1-3 courses) of prerequisites may be in-progress at the time of applying; however, it may affect the chance of acceptance into the program. All in-progress courses must be completed before starting the program in summer quarter.

  • A grade of "C" or higher is required for each prerequisite. 
  • Cumulative College GPA of 2.5 or higher
  • Biological Science courses* GPA of 2.75 or higher (A&P, Nutrition, Microbiology, & Pharmacology-which need a six-year recency requirement)
  • Completion of CSU or IGETC pattern general education which includes many of the courses listed below

List of Prerequistes

Click here to see a list of prerequistes with C-IDs

COURSE NAME COURSEWORK EQUIVALENT

Human Anatomy & Physiology with labs*

BIOL 40A & 40B & 40C
or equivalent

Introduction to Human Nutrition*

BIOL 45 or equivalent

Microbiology with lab*

BIOL 41 or equivalent

Pharmacology*
(must be taken at Foothill College)

PHT 58 - no substitution

Survey of Inorganic, Organic & Biochemistry with labs

CHEM 30A & CHEM 30B
or equivalent

Introduction to Speech or Communication

COMM 1A or 1AH or 1B or 2 or 3 or 4 or equivalent

Introduction to Dental Hygiene
(must be taken at Foothill College) 

DH 200L - no substitution

English Composition & Reading 

ENGL 1A or 1AH or ESLL 26
or equivalent

English Composition, Critical Reading & Thinking 

ENGL 1B or 1BH or 1C or 1CH
or PHIL 1 or 7 or equivalent

Health

HLTH 21 or HLTH 20
or equivalent

Statistics

MATH 10 or PSYC 7 or SOC 7
or equivalent

General Psychology

PSYC 1 or equivalent

Introduction to Sociology

SOC 1 or equivalent

Intercultural Communication
(excluding CSU Area F)

COMM 12 or COMM 10
or equivalent

DH Entry-Level Track Education Plan Example

  • Preparation for the major = 91.5 quarter units (first two years)
  • Majors courses & upper division GE = 105.5 quarter units
  • Total units for BS in Dental Hygiene = 197 quarter units
  • Entry-Level Education Plan Example

Course Equivalency

Please use the Transfer Equivalency System (TES) as a tool to help  assess which credits earned from previous college-level regionally accredited institutions will transfer to Foothill College. It is important to note that TES is used as an initial tool for providing you with an unofficial transfer evaluation and does not replace an official transcript evaluation, so it is strongly advised to meet with a counselor to help determine how your transfer credits apply to your degree plan. Courses not listed, must be petitioned through our Counseling Department.

Counseling, CSU/IGETC General Education Certification and Transferability

It is recommended that prospective applicants meet with an academic counselor to review and evaluate their college transcripts. Any courses needing to be petitioned for equivalency will be done at this time. The deadline for students to submit petitions is fall quarter to be considered prior to the application deadline.

To make a 30-minute counseling appointment you must have a valid Foothill College student CWID number. Bring transcripts and pertinent documentation (such as course outlines/descriptions/transcripts) to your appointment. Click here to schedule a counseling appointment.

General Education: The Dental Hygiene program grants a Bachelor of Science degree; therefore all students must complete the CSU or IGETC general education requirements prior to starting the dental hygiene program. Questions regarding general education requirements, and transferability of course work should be directed to one of the academic counselors at Foothill College (the most experienced counselors to Dental Hygiene Program are Jue Thao, Issac Escoto, and Lety Serna).

Transcripts

All transcripts must be sent electronically to Foothill College Admissions and Records at fhtranscripts@fhda.edu before the application deadline. If your college does not offer electronic transcripts, official sealed transcripts should send to Admissions and Records will suffice. Transcripts should include all work shown as completed on the application.

Note:  ALL college transcripts from US colleges and universities are required, even if the courses don’t seem relevant. An application that is not complete and/or does not have all transcripts included will not be considered.

Previous Applicants - All previous applicants must re-apply via MyPortal and resubmit all updated transcripts electronically to the Foothill College Admissions and Records Department.

Foreign Transcripts - Foreign degree/coursework cannot be used to satisfy/fulfill the prerequisites and general education pattern. The Foothill College Dental Hygiene Program is part of the Bachelor Degree Pilot (BDP) Program which allows some community colleges to award bachelor's degrees in California.  We are required to follow specific guidelines set by the Academic Senate for accepting coursework toward completion of general education.  As stated in the BDP Program Handbook, regardless if the student has completed a prior Bachelor's degree or not, the student will be required to complete additional lower division general education courses to meet the baccalaureate general education requirements which are either a CSU General Education Breadth or Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum. Upper division general education courses cannot be used to satisfy (lower division) CSU General Education Breadth or Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum.

 

Apply for Entry-Level Track Dental Hygiene Program

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Questions?
We're Here to Help!

Truc Nguyen, Dental Administrative Assistant

dentalhygieneclinic@foothill.edu


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