Wow, it's interesting to see my sad story has sparked such debate and discussion in the FL thread. I'm not sure if I have anything else significant to add. If I did retake the mcat I'd definitely study via a kaplan or princeton review course; something I opted not to do initially, so I would assume I could bump it up at least 1 or 2 points. I guess taking it a second time wouldn't be that much of a red flag. But that's really not the issue. From what I gathered my scores weren't really the problem.
When I interviewed with USF the first time around my interviews weren't very good. Two days before I came down with laryngitis, felt horrible, and everything just didn't go well. I was placed at the bottom tier and told that the main reason was clinical experience. I needed more patient contact and volunteer activities to show my dedication to the field.
So after volunteering at local hospital I started to volunteer at an ER, did some more shadowing, engaged in non-P work, got around 4-5 new LOR's, wrote to at least 30 physicians and clinics in order to get more clinical exp. My interviews this time around went very well. During this time of volunteer activities I had to hold down local part time jobs; not exactly working at moffitt (and believe me I've sent numerous applications there as well). I managed to talk with a researcher at moffitt involved in immunotherapy. When looking at my resume she commented that I was either a premed or someone on route to a doctoral program; she said either way they were looking for someone who would definitely be there for the long term and I apparently wasn't it. When I first applied to USF REL told me that many other applicants had been shadowing since they were around 12, so they had an upper hand of long term clinical experiences. Since basically deciding upon medicine upon entering college, I found going back in time in order to beat others to the punch very challenging.
The long and short of it is this; I worked very hard in order to succeed in college and be competitive enough for med school. I engaged in the type of EC's most applicants participate in; hospitals, shadowing, non-P, research, etc. I feel that instead of having spent my time getting A's and wiping down gurneys I should have forked over a few thousand bucks, gone to Africa, costa rica or something for a few years and come back with grandious stories of how I saved villages and built wells. I'm not against those types of experiences, believe me. In fact one of my main goals as a doctor was to engage in medical missions. All I'm saying is that it seems like applicants have to constantly keep pushing the bar higher in terms of "better" experiences in order to receive admittance.
Look, I understand getting into med school is a crap shoot. There are thousands applying for around 120 spots, so there's obviously an incentive to hand them out to those they think want it more. I've sent letter after letter detailing just how passionate I am about medicine. I've contacted dozens of doctors pleading for shadowing opportunities. The few who reply are only willing to give me a day in which to do so. It seems now I have to go $40k in debt to do an SMP and then the adcoms will take me seriously. The only problem being that there's still no guarantee. I envy those who go straight into med school from college. I've spent a year wracking my brain trying to do everything possible to get new letters and new experiences. At this point I'm honestly out of ideas. What I'm certain of is that the SMP probably won't be my golden ticket. Maybe carrib? Maybe DO? Maybe something else where I'll receive similar satisfaction in completing what I personally feel to be my calling. God knows. It's all in his will even though at times this path has been pretty brutal. I know this is a pretty long post but I figured it's best to explain my sad story fully. I just want this storm to end! Good luck to everyone else at this point and thanks for your advice.