Advice needed

[darthertain]

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Hello all, 2024 graduate. I finally got my MCAT score 2 days ago and I scored 517. Not THE best, but I am thoroughly impressed with myself. I want to apply next year to medical school. Here are my stats:
3.45 GPA
450+ hours non clinical employment @ Student led college food pantry.
480 hours non clinical employment (yard duty monitor @ elementary school).
1000+ clinical hours (family medicine clinic referrals and other office work).
100+ clinical volunteering at a hospital, planning on getting more volunteering experiences.
2/3 LORS, 1 from clinic doctor and 1 from professor. One more shouldn't be hard to get.
So far, I believe I have a solid application. I am trying to get my hands on shadowing and research but it has been difficult. I want to matriculate by 2027, so 2026 would be the year to research and apply to medical schools. The problem is, a lot of the post-bacc research programs I have looked at have already closed their application window for 2026. I have tried emailing professors with labs and applying to research jobs but to no success. I focused most of my time afterwards on studying for the MCAT which is thankfully how I got a great score. Here come the questions:
1) Do I absolutely need research before I apply?
2) What are my chances for medical school in general?
3) If I were to use LizzyM to construct a tentative school list, which range percentage should I use?
Thank you for reading. My favorite amino acid is cysteine in case you were wondering.

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence? You should accumulate 50 hours of in person physician shadowing (including primary care). Research is not essential for the schools you would be applying to.

 

[candbgirl]

Was the food distribution a paid activity?

 

[darthertain]

@Faha the great state of California.
@candbgirl yes the food pantry was a paid activity.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Albany
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Georgetown
Alice Walton
TCU
Roseman
Ponce (St. Louis)
Creighton
Rosalind Franklin
Loyola
Rush
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Arizona (Phoenix)
California University
Kaiser
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)
USC Keck
The UCs (except Riverside unless you are from that region)

 

[darthertain]

Thank you for the suggestion! Do you think not having any research would be shooting myself in the foot here?

 

[Faha]

Thank you for the suggestion! Do you think not having any research would be shooting myself in the foot here?

Thank you for the suggestion! Do you think not having any research would be shooting myself in the foot here?

Not for most of the schools I listed.

 

[candbgirl]

You don’t mention any nonclinical volunteering. You need that be competitive at most schools. For schools like Rush and Loyola, they expect hundreds if not thousands of hours of service oriented volunteering.

 

[darthertain]

Thank you guys for the advice, I appreciate it. I am going to get more nonclinical volunteering hours.

 

[Geodon]

Dang, ONLY a 517?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes, look for service off-campus. Get more outside your comfort zone than you have shown in your WAMC profile. Make yourself comfortable being with uncomfortable people. The less clinic-adjacent the better. You do have your food pantry work on campus, so you can pursue something close off-campus (see Meals on Wheels) or a different underserved population (e.g., homeless veterans).