Gap year - SMP or Clinical Research Job?

[pinegrove]

I'm a senior at a top 10 school currently looking at what will be a cGPA of 3.65 and an sGPA of 3.55. Big issue is that I got a B- in almost every one of my prereqs (mix of medical issues, bad planning, and idk what). Upward trend senior year. Haven't taken the MCAT.

4 years of clinical research with 2 publications, big leadership positions, but only 200 hours volunteering with patients and like 30 hours shadowing (super low, going to fix gap year). I decided on med school pretty late in the game.

I'm going to take another year before applying. I'm wondering if, assuming I can kill my MCAT, if I need to be considering an SMP to improve on the bad grades or if I can take a clinical research coordinator job, round out the shadowing + patient facing side of my application, and apply next year.

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[Catalystik]

I'm a senior at a top 10 school currently looking at what will be a cGPA of 3.65 and an sGPA of 3.55. Big issue is that I got a B- in almost every one of my prereqs (mix of medical issues, bad planning, and idk what). Upward trend senior year. Haven't taken the MCAT.

4 years of clinical research with 2 publications, big leadership positions, but only 200 hours volunteering with patients and like 30 hours shadowing (super low, going to fix gap year). I decided on med school pretty late in the game.

I'm going to take another year before applying. I'm wondering if, assuming I can kill my MCAT, if I need to be considering an SMP to improve on the bad grades or if I can take a clinical research coordinator job, round out the shadowing + patient facing side of my application, and apply next year.

You don't need an SMP, but another year of undergrad upper-level science, in which you earn A grades (either by delaying graduation or through a do-it-yourself postbac), will make you more competitive for MD schools. Adding more research will not.