Medical How does my plan look?

[esob]

sGPA: 3.3
cGPA: 3.3
MCAT: None
Clinical: 2000+ hrs paid EMS work. Leadership position within organization.
Volunteering/shadowing: None so far. Working on finding opportunities. Lack of volunteering is mostly issue of time, but I am looking for opportunities at this time.
Research: Working on a project now. Expecting a journal and maybe a pub by the time I graduate.

Computer Science Junior
Pre-reqs done: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psych
In progress: Organic 1, sociology

I'd like to take a gap year for applications, and apply in May of my senior year, thus would like to take the MCAT in end of August or early September, giving me 4 1/4 months to teach myself biochem (first) and take MCAT next. If the former doesn't go well, I'll deviate from this plan of course.

Are there any recommendations or things that I should change from above?

If you are hoping to go MD, you will need to first focus on raising your GPA, as your current GPA is not competitive for MD schools. GPA is by far the hardest thing to "fix", so your first plan of action should be doing whatever it takes to make all A's. You can always add EC's later, take the MCAT later, etc. However, the number of extra classes required to raise your GPA after a single C is exponential in comparison. For example, the TMDSAS application stats for this year's classes show that between 1-3 % of matriculants have a GPA in your range, and that includes our state DO school.

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[esob]

I'd prefer to go to DO school, at this point. And yeah I've been doing my best to boost my GPA as much as possible, and hopefully I can show an upward trend for my last three semesters. Would my GPA be okay for DO school? I know it's hard to tell without an MCAT though I guess.

From the last set of data put out of AACOMAS, the median overall matriculant GPA was a 3.53-3.56 (depending on if they had any post-grad grades), with a 503.3 MCAT. My guess is that those numbers are higher now, as allopathic school stats have risen during the same time period. So, you are still within striking distance of being at the median (which is the point where your EC's and holistic review kicks in) but you definitely still want to focus on your GPA. If you would like to browse the stats, here is the link:

Matriculants

 

[Lucca]

1. You need clinical volunteering and shadowing. This should be something you actively seek out ASAP so you can put it on your app. More important than research for you. The schools with super high stats care about research; those with stats closer to your range won’t care nearly as much and value clinical XP, service far more of which you have little.

2. I would recommend taking Biochemistry and not trying to teach it to yourself if at all possible. If you were a 4.0 student, I might not be concerned but Biochemistry is at least 25% of all content on the MCAT— it is not the place to cut corners and you *need* this MCAT score to be 508 or better to have a good shot at DO and any shot at MD.