Where there's a will there's a way my friend.
This cannot be stressed enough. It can be done but you have to make sacrifices in order to accomplish it. The specifics of what worked for me, and others, will not necessarily apply to you. You have to figure this out on your own. I was not enrolled in a traditional post-bac program but I took 7-9 credits at a four year school while employed full time. None of the courses were online. Full time employment for me was 56 hours per week, not 40. I worked for a fire department and my schedule consisted of a tour of three 24 hour shifts, followed by a four day break. So I would work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (off Tuesday/Thursday) then begin a break Saturday-Tuesday, and restart the crazy process again by Wednesday. My shift started at 0700 but you were considered "late" by your peers if you were not showered, in uniform, and beginning your equipment/gear checks by 0600. I woke up at 0420 to go to work each morning. I wasn't at a slow station either. While on the medic unit we would run 8-10 calls per day. The fire truck was similarly busy. I rarely started schoolwork until after dinner because my job performance could not suffer. I rarely went to bed before 0100 either. My second year of prereqs I was enrolled in chemistry and physics, both with labs. It is possible, but it requires absolute focus. I wouldn't suggest trying this plan your first semester though. I graduated in 2007 and started the prereqs in the fall of 2010 so I doubted that I could do it too. As I have posted elsewhere, I had to surmount a terrible undergraduate gpa. I operated under the principle of "anything less than an A and I'm not going to medical school." My science gpa is a 3.52 and my cumulative over these 48 hours is a 3.43. Obviously, not straight A's.
The point I am trying to make here is that there are two completely different ways to look at it. My second year (physics/chem) was pure hell. But it was also the definitive proof I needed to quiet the most vocal Doubting Thomas out there: me. Before I started this whole adventure my biggest fear was that I couldn't do it. Failure would have proved that my undergrad performance wasn't a fluke and I was little more than a bit chlorine in the gene pool. Hyperbole? Yes. Honesty? That too.
This is probably already longer than you cared to read, but here is what helped me survive the last four years and kick ass (personal bias) in the process. Don't forget KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Your t-shirt says "I'm with Stupid" and the arrow points directly at me.
1)Break it down into manageable pieces. I essentially needed to take every single prereq. This is intimidating for traditional students, let alone nontraditional students like us. I wouldn't have made it beyond the first semester if I focused on everything at once.
2)Plan. This was the most difficult part for me. Perhaps the greatest benefit of taking these courses at a large university is that there are multiple sections of the intro level classes. Since I worked 24 hour shifts I had to look at my work schedule for the entire semester and break it down into days of the week I was scheduled to work. Then I had to see what grouping of days I worked the least and how that class was offered (MWF, T/R, MW etc) by the university. I was going to miss lectures, this was unavoidable. I had to work twice as hard for those days so as not to fall behind. I could not miss labs, and I wouldn't have wanted to either because they boosted my grade for every single class.
3)Semper Gumby. You have to persevere. Life does not change because you are reformed in your academic ways. Friends and family still become sick and die (sorry), you will still get sick, and you will never have enough time or money. You're still going to fail tests. (I threw that one in there to make myself feel better, maybe you won't.)
4)Surround yourself with good people. Maybe you can do it on your own. I know I couldn't.
5)Ask for help. Be honest with yourself and the material. Not what you think you know or what you learned in the past. Why did you get a C and not an A? Test anxiety occurs because you haven't mastered the material. Cramming before the test and pulling off a good grade will bite you in the ass for the next exam, the final, the following semester, and the MCAT.
6)Ask for help. You have to use your resources. My wife was a TA in grad school and her biggest complaint was that students would come to her with a big, sappy story (or sometimes not) and
expect to be accommodated without providing a realistic solution. Don't forget that professors are incredibly busy with their own lives, education, and work schedules as well. My experience has been that they will always work with you if you are proactive. This means identifying the issue as soon as it arises and solving it yourself. I never asked to be provided with an answer but rather sought approval for a specific alternative that I had already prepared. Be reasonable and suggest the one that least inconveniences them so all they need to do is say "yes." Then keep your word, no matter what. I would have vomited all over their desk or missed my own wedding before sending an email saying I couldn't adhere to our agreement.
7)Take care of yourself physically and mentally. Exercise, eat well, and find a healthy outlet for your stress. You're going to be stressed. I work on a medevac helicopter now and so my full time job comes with its own set of tests each day. If I didn't have one hell of a wife for support and an outlet for stress, the combination of work and school would eat me alive.
I haven't gotten in...yet. So this could all be for nothing. Somehow, I doubt it.
Good luck.
