Medical Addressing "unique" circumstances

[Goro]

Hi! I am planning to apply in 2020 cycle and I am I think a nontraditional applicant (perhaps not) but I had a few questions about addressing certain things. Sorry it's so long!! My pre-health office has given me really vague and frankly unhelpful advice so I am hoping to get some other perspectives.

1) Disadvantaged Status:
I grew up fairly poor; we lived in section 8 housing, were on Medicaid, free and reduced lunch, etc. My mom has been working for the past 10 years to get her Masters and recently just got it last May. Her income is now four-fold higher than it ever was. Growing up, I really struggled so I know that while she has an advanced degree now and a much higher income, is it not right to claim disadvantaged status? It's not for a "leg up" but I had to work a lot through high school and college and even during grad school to sustain myself and help my family and this obviously has shaped a lot of my career aspirations and also has had an impact on my academic performance and I want to be able to explain this but I don't want to claim something that I technically may not fit anymore?

2) Graduate School
I was premed in undergrad but after being discouraged from pursuing medicine by our pre-health office after my worst semester in undergrad, I decided to just pursue graduate school because I did better in my engineering courses than my premed courses and also really love research. I kept volunteering in two clinics because it kept me sane when grad school got rough and I was able to feel like I was doing something actually useful and found that I loved the work in the clinical settings more than I loved slaving away in the lab. I still love research but not enough to have it be the only thing I am doing. I am finishing my dual MS/PhD program at the MS stage and not pursuing a PhD. I have been advised to present my story in two conflicting ways: (1) to just say I've always wanted to do medicine and not mention the discouragement or the detours and say that I picked grad school to get more thorough research training prior to med school or (2) to be more honest about exactly why I went to grad school to begin with. However, I don't know if it is a bad idea to say that I was discouraged from medicine because of academic performance (which later improved). I want to be honest but I also don't want to appear not confident in my ability to succeed in medicine or the fact I may get discouraged easily. 19 year old me did get discouraged but 24 year old me is not bothered as much and is willing to do whatever it takes and cares more about the bigger picture. I am actually really glad I went to grad school because if I had not, I would not have realized what really gets me excited to get out of bed and that being able to care for patients is something that is really important to me and with a MD, I could still do research but with a PhD, I wouldn't be able to be involved in patient care and I would not be satisfied with that. Grad school is definitely an important part of my story but I am not sure how it would come off to an adcom.

I know I may get questions about whether I actually want to do medicine since it seems like I have changed my mind a lot, why I went to grad school, why my degree is taking so long, why I have two different engineering degrees, etc. and I am just not sure how to approach it. I don't want to raise any alarm bells that I may not realize I am raising by being thoroughly explaining my path.

3) "Poor" Grades/Strengthening application/potential school list
I went to MIT for undergrad (chem engineering) and am also in grad school (mech engineering). I have a 3.66 for uGPA and a 3.8 for gGPA. For sGPA, depending on how many engineering courses I can get approved as BCPM, it will range from 3.3-3.5. I just recently took the MCAT but my AAMC practice exams ranged from 521-523 so hoping that I get above a 515. I am planning to apply this cycle but I recognize that my GPA is a bit weak. For me, it's not prestigious med school or bust as it is for a lot of my peers at MIT but I want to put my best foot forward and am really interested in urban healthcare disparities. It happens that most urban schools are extremely competitive to get into. Would it be wise to take some post bac classes to raise my sGPA to make myself a more competitive applicant? I have no Cs so I can't really retake prereqs but also doing the math, it would take me a lot of post bac classes to make a dent in my sGPA, which is frustrating.
I have about 700 clinical volunteering hours with two organizations addressing healthcare disparities I am super passionate about with long term involvement, ~500 nonclinical volunteering hours, lots of teaching/work experience, 2 midauthor publications (one in a nature subjournal) with 2 first author publications in process of submission (may not be accepted before application), school and national fellowships/awards.

Should I hold off on applying this cycle? What else could I do to strengthen my application? Would a year of Americorps service be useful? I am trying to not be crazy but my GPA (especially sGPA) is below the average for most schools but I also don't know how much weight the prestige of my institutions/difficulty of major will add and I also don't know if my MCAT is solid enough to compensate somewhat. Plus, my story may seem all over the place, which may be the biggest issue?

I know I don't have a MCAT yet but this is my school list currently- I would be happy to go to any of these and really would like to go to a school with an urban underserved focus but am having trouble expanding this list. Are there any schools that I should add or take off? I'm a PA resident. I have mostly been thinking MD and have not considered DO but am not sure if I should consider it. I'm definitely not opposed to it.

BU (have strong ties here; sister is an alum)
Tufts
NYU
Mt. Sinai
Columbia
Hofstra
Albert Einstein
Pitt
Temple
Drexel
Jefferson
UCSF
UCLA
Brown
Emory
Loyola
George Washington
Georgetown
Rush
USC
UChicago
Northwestern
Univ of Miami

Thanks so much for your help in advance! Again, apologies for length.

Once you have your MCAT, we can properly advise you.

Don't make the app about your mom. this is your process. It does sound like you were disadvantaged and have ample fodder for the prompts on adversity/resilience/coping skills.

Your sGPA is weak but not lethal for MD schools and fine for DO.

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[Mr.Smile12]

As an engineering major, your sGPA is actually pretty decent, and those schools who can properly interpret your GPA as such will probably give you a bit more benefit of the doubt. That said, you should be networking to get insight on how many engineers or people similar to you have been considered.