Hello all,
I am brand new to this community but I wish that I had stumbled upon it a long time ago. Definitely would have helped with the MCAT prep!
So I am a 35 yr old Pakistani American female, will turn 36 end of July. I’m a former lead Manufacturing Engineer (Boeing and more recent Sikorsky) with a BS and MS degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering. I quit my contract job at Sikorsky around end of 2013 and decided to enroll myself full-time to finish up almost 2 yrs worth of pre-reqs. I had to retake Gen Chem and Gen Phys too since I’d been out of school >10 yes. I decided to pursue this long sought dream of mine despite coming out of a really bad divorce. The first few semesters weren’t too bad, perhaps the rage post-divorce fueled me but by Biochem I was a total wreck and barely managed to pull through with an ‘A’. Here are my stats:-
Undergrad GPA: 3.89 (from UF)
Graduate GPA: 3.84/3.83 (1 semester @Georgia Tech, completed at UF also)
Pre-med pre-req’ts: 4.0 (from community college plus Organic Chem & Biochem at UCF)
UF = Univ. of FL
UCF = Univ. of Central Florida
MCAT Score: 499
Phys/Chem: 128
Bio/Biochem: 125
Psych: 124
CARS: 122
Hence clearly the verbal section killed me and I could’ve done better on the psych/socio too. I have decided to apply to 8 DO’s and 14 MD programs regardless of the horrible score since I don’t have the emotional, mental, or physical strength in me to sit for that ~7 HR grueling exam again. I had taken an online Kaplan class to help me prepare and I was scoring along the lines of my score on the Kaplan practice tests although I scored much better on the AAMC practice test. I noticed DO programs are more forgiving of your MCAT score and I also researched some MD schools that have a ‘holistic review’ in their admission process, though all those schools would be out of state for me. I do have shadowing and volunteer experience but unfortunately no medical research exp under my belt. I also worked part time at a hospital and am currently looking to get a full time engineering job to save up some much needed money since everything for this endeavor came out of my own pocket with little help from folks back in Pakistan. Let me tell you, I wish I could say I enjoyed every bit of this journey but that would be a huge lie. My mother and sister back home told me they’ve never seen me this panicky, anxious, or depressed before. I am constantly worried and crying over my realistic acceptance probability. I feel like I gave it my all, all that was left in me after the divorce anyways 
I only pray I can go visit my family in Pakistan this Dec (first time since divorce) with some +ve news so my poor mom who is almost 70 can also breathe easy on her daughters account.
I am so apologetic about this long nonsensical rant. Thank you in advance to all those who reply.
Hey there, take few deep breaths. You’ve done a great job in school (lots of it) and have some great work & leadership experience. Those are your strengths so rely on them. I really enjoy your writing as well, so I bet you’ll do a great job on your applications. You need to be your own greatest believer! 
Hi there! I understand your pain being from a indo/pak background as well and I plan on going back to school to pursue this dream also. The bright side is that you put everything you had into it and that’s all that matters. If it is really your dream then that MCAT score shouldn’t matter. There has to be some pain and there has to be some failure with the process. If worst comes to worst, You can always take it again! And don’t feel like you cant do it. You already made a lot of sacrifices and honestly if it was easy then EVERYONE would be doing it. If you don’t get in somewhere just take a step back, analyze what you could have done better, and be easy on yourself. It is a long road and being negative won’t help. Be positive! YOU GOT THIS!