Dental Hygiene Program?

I wanted to go to western career college for dental hygiene, but you need like 9 preqs before getting accpeted, so the admissions counselor told me to take the dental assisting program first and the try to go into dental hygiene, I'm guessing thats another way of getting accepted to the hygiene program. Has anyone done this before? I dont want to pay all that money for dental assisting and then not get accepted in the dental hygiene program. I'm really set on being a dental hygienist i'm 25 times a tickn. Are there any current dental hygienist students are the classes hard? Is it time consuming and will I still be able to work a part time job while attending the program?

Suggestion:

Currently I am taking the prerequisites and generals to enter a Dental Hygienist program.
About an hour from my house there is a school that takes fourteen students a year, based on GPA for those classes taken needed to enter the program.
To the best of my knowledge, being a Dental Assistant first doesn't give you an "edge" when applying for Hygienist school. Although it does help you become familiar with all the dental terms and whatnot, for me it was too much money to go through two programs, I would rather work hard in one! I've been told it is very intense schooling and is basically a four year program scrunched into two years.
Good luck in your schooling!