WAMC/General Advice for Senior Year

[shatri]

First time poster, apologies if this is the wrong place to put this. I'm going into my senior year of college and planning to take a gap year (applying spring 2023 for 2024 matriculation). Got my MCAT scores back recently but am unsure of what to prioritize in terms of activities/research with the time I have before applying. Also don't know the best way to spend my gap year.

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
   1. cGPA: 3.86, sGPA: 3.80
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown
   1. 524 (131/130/131/132)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
   1. CA
4. Ethnicity and/or race
   1. ORM
5. Undergraduate institution or category
   1. One of the UCs
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. 500+ hrs paid EMT, planning to continue throughout gap year
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. 300+ hrs undergraduate research in engineering, no publications yet
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. 10 hrs pathology
   2. 10 hrs internal medicine
   3. 10 hrs orthopedics
   4. 10 hrs vascular surgery
   5. Planning on getting more shadowing experience this year, it's just been tough to find physicians to shadow
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. 20 hrs registration at blood drives
   2. 50 hrs sorting food at a soup kitchen
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Leadership position of a student-run orchestra for 2+ years, run orchestra rehearsal and plan concerts
    2. Leadership position of a cultural club, help organize social activities and maintain club website
    3. Tutoring elementary school kids who are struggling in school (remote position)
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Dean's Honors
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    1. Didn't decide on medicine until last year, so I might be lacking a lot compared to my peers.

I'm planning to apply to all the California state schools, plus some others (haven't bought MSAR yet so I don't even have a preliminary school list yet). Would love if people could point out the current weaknesses in my application and what I could possibly do during my last year of college + gap year months to help rectify them.

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[Mr.Smile12]

More nonclinical volunteering hours.

 

[candbgirl]

You really need more nonclinical volunteering. Focus on face to face service with the unserved/underserved in your community. You have a good start with the soup kitchen.
You might want to try diversifying your clinical experiences. 500+ hours(and more to come) as an EMT is fine but you should try to see what happens in hospitals, clinics etc.
Good luck.