What to do? No volunteer work...

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JumpDiveDuck

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I have:
-3.5 GPA
-July 28th MCAT, no scores until Aug 30, probably score 28-29
-Solid EC's at my school, including mentoring programs
-NO VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
-Illinois Residency

What are my chances at MD/DO schools? I will start volunteering at a hospital AND researching in my professor's lab in late August. However, I plan on applying this cycle.

OR

Should I wait a year (lag year) and keep building my app?
THANKS

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Shadowing? Any clinical experience? Teaching? Something?
 
If I were you I would wait a cycle to get a year of volunteering in. Without it, you are at a huge disadvantage. I know someone with stellar grades and MCAT who couldn't volunteer because everything he did had to involve getting money to afford his education. He thought he was fine because he worked at a hospital for 3 years with plenty of patient interaction. He got onto a waitlist but the schools he contacted said he wasn't interviewed because of the lack of volunteering.
 
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Wait a year I'd say. you'll need very high scores to possibly get in without volunteering.
 
take a year off, try and get a job as an ER scribe, builds up a lot of hours quickly and sometimes you get paid for it.
doesn't necessarily need to be "volunteer" hours, but health care experience.
 
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