Do these essays bring tears to anyone else's eyes? Five essays including a summary of your PS. Gawd, I am so burned out on talking about how great I am.
Have a great interview.
Unless they get something on track (as is planned) with regard to a biomedical sciences master's program, nursing, or PA that graduates sooner, thus providing full accreditation and federal loan eligibility...
Well, 160 other med students - or at least a majority, are doing it financially with no problem.
I wouldn't say a large number are going HPSP - I'd estimate about 10% - maybe. Everyone else is doing MedPlus, Nelnet, - or some variation from Sallie Mae Medical Loans (the majority). Someone else will have to chime up with regard to the going rates; I don't remember if it's Libor or Prime + 1-2 %. I think it all falls around 8% interest - or somewhere thereabouts.
I rescheduled for Sept 16 which, as I understand it, will be the first interview day.
Yes, I'm in the first interview group. My date is Sept 16. When they first called me with the invite they said I could choose between Aug. 26, 28 or Sept 16. I originally opted for the aug 26th date. But I got a call back an hour or two later saying they had to cancle the two Aug dates because the democratic national convention was being held that week in Denver, which would make it a little tough to find a hotel since most are booked out already!
I-25 will be shut down for a period of time! 
You could give the admissions office a call and see what their opinion is. Your scores in the other two sections are great and if you say the rest of your application is good they could possibly make an exception (schools do that sometimes...). They may want you to retake the MCAT though to bring up the score in PS. I'm sure you'd do great though if you retook it. You can only get a better score than 5 - nothing to be nervous about!
There's no way to know if you'll get through various school screens. The 5 in a subsection stands out regardless. There's still a good chance you could land a decent number of interviews but I'd shoot for retaking the MCAT as you've planned. You'll surely bring up that section score and then you'll be golden; just the fact that you're retaking it might be enough for some schools to consider your application now while they wait for your new score.
Oh - I think a good person to talk to at RVUCOM is a adminission counselor named Kerri (don't recall her last name at the moment) - actually, probably anyone there in admissions can help with that question. If it were me, I'd go ahead and apply - broadly, with a MCAT retake in the offing.
