I take it you went to Berkeley? I would be more than happy to share my experience of applying and getting in with you and I hope I can help. I graduated from UCB in 97 with a degree in Latin American Studies, worked, volunteered, took the last of my premed classes, and eventually took the MCATs and applied. I did well in school- but NOT spectacularly- I was not a 4.0 and my science GPA wasn't higher than a 3.5 or something like that. I did relatively well on the MCAT, though, 11, 11, 12, S. I applied to 23 schools, got 12 interviews, attended 9 of them, was waitlisted at 4 schools and accepted at 5 schools. The entire process was incredibly time consuming and draining- emotionally and financially. Applying to 23 schools means forking over a LOT of $$$, not to mention writing entirely too many essays that are not always "cut-and-paste-able".
I would suggest getting a hold of essays from this year's applications and starting drafts NOW rather than writing them all when the secondaries start arriving. They take a lot of time to write and the longer you take to send them back, the longer it takes to review your application, and the more possible it may be that your interview slot goes by the wayside. Besides, after writing 30 essays, I started to stop caring about typos and content. . . .
At any rate, things worked out well and I have to say that having been a good student from Berkeley strengthened my application. But keep in mind that the entire process is really random in many ways. For example, I got interviews at Wash U and Columbia, but got flat-out rejected at Tulane without an interview. It does, however, depend on what YOU do in addition to having been a good student. It seems like most of the interviews I had were entirely based on figuring out what made me tick as a person and why I had done the nonacademic things I had done.
In the end, I had a few choices, which was nice. UCI, UCSD, U Pitt, Tufts, and U Michigan- Ann Arbor. I decided on Michigan. Giving up the in-state tuition was hard to swallow, but I know I am making the right decision.
. . . I hope this helps- and good luck to you.