MD & DO Fairly good GPA/MCAT, low extracurriculars

[getintherobot]

Honestly I don't really know where I should be applying and what schools I should realistically look into. Currently a junior at Duke but I can apply for Florida schools as an in state resident.

Major: Biology (concentration in Pharmacology)
Minor: Chemistry
Overall GPA:3.72
Science (BCMP) GPA: 3.58

MCAT: Haven't taken, but averaging ~36/37 on practice exams

Clinical volunteer activities: Weak point, volunteered 200-300 hours in local hospital in high school, but none in undergrad

Physician shadowing: 120 hours shadowing a general practitioner, 40 hours shadowing surgeon in a cath lab

Research:
1 summer of research at a UF lab on recovery from spinal cord injury in rat models. 30hrs a week/200hrs total
1 semester of independent study conducting an experiment of my own design on drug use and damage to dopaminergic neurons in zebrafish. 4hrs a week/60 hrs total
2 semesters independent study in Duke medical lab, planning to continue working in the lab senior year, possibly writing a thesis to graduate with distinction. 250 hrs total for these 2 semesters.

Nonclinical volunteer activities: Nothing

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[dancingmate]

My GPA stats are pretty spot on with yours, and I have been accepted to a few medical schools this cycle (still waiting to hear back from a few). Obviously, continue to work hard, raising that sGPA above 3.6 will only strengthen your app. Averaging 36/37 on exams is pretty solid. Keep it up and hopefully you will score in that range on the real thing. As for volunteering, you need to demonstrate altruism and commitment to service and others. Clinical volunteering is pretty much a must when applying. Even though you volunteered in high school, nothing from high school is of importance to a medical school. I highly recommend you get a volunteer position at a clinic or hospital and rack up some service hours before submitting your AMCAS. You can continue working through the application cycle and explain that to adcoms during interviews. Nonclinical volunteering is not necessary, but recommended. Lots of people participate in community service just around their school--maybe helping out a food bank or local soup kitchen once a week, or tutoring children for free. Just depends on what you are interested. But really, just score well on the MCAT, get some clinical volunteering and strong LORs and you will have a very good shot and gaining acceptance to Florida schools and elsewhere.