Increasing competitiveness by taking another semester

[ThatWIchick]

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I am a junior in college, with around 100 credits, but slightly behind in my degree because of a serious car accident my freshman year of college, then transferring my sophomore year. I am working towards a degree in biology and I knew I wanted to do the pre-health path, I was just unsure of what discipline. I have finally decided that I want to go to medical school and I am trying to plan out my next two years of college.

I can't get all of the prereqs for med school done and graduate on time because of circumstances beyond my control. I can easily get everything done if I take an extra semester and graduate in fall 2020. Would it be better for me to stay in school a full extra year, graduate spring 2021, and take classes to raise my GPA and increase my involvement on campus? Or graduate at fall semester? I am seriously leaning towards taking a full extra year.

Edit: 3.7 GPA, planning on taking the MCAT Jan 2019 (planning on probably having to retake it later on), small amount of undergrad biology research so far, hoping to do more later on, volunteering, shadowing, and work experience in the health industry. I'm nothing uber fantastic, but I'm a hard worker and trying to make myself as competitive as possible because this is what I am passionate about.

 

[candbgirl]

What is your GPA? When are you planning to take the MCAT? How are your ECs? We can’t realky help you because you didn’t give us any information.

 

[Catalystik]

I am a junior in college, with around 100 credits, but slightly behind in my degree because of a serious car accident my freshman year of college, then transferring my sophomore year. I am working towards a degree in biology and I knew I wanted to do the pre-health path, I was just unsure of what discipline. I have finally decided that I want to go to medical school and I am trying to plan out my next two years of college.

I can't get all of the prereqs for med school done and graduate on time because of circumstances beyond my control. I can easily get everything done if I take an extra semester and graduate in fall 2020. Would it be better for me to stay in school a full extra year, graduate spring 2021, and take classes to raise my GPA and increase my involvement on campus? Or graduate at fall semester? I am seriously leaning towards taking a full extra year.

Edit: 3.7 GPA, planning on taking the MCAT Jan 2019 (planning on probably having to retake it later on), small amount of undergrad biology research so far, hoping to do more later on, volunteering, shadowing, and work experience in the health industry. I'm nothing uber fantastic, but I'm a hard worker and trying to make myself as competitive as possible because this is what I am passionate about.

Spending the extra time in an academic environment where you have myriad opportunities (teaching, research, leadership, community service) that can make your application more competitive is a fine idea, as longevity in those activities is preferred, assuming the extra cost of attendance isn't prohibitive. But keep in mind that future intentions won't get you much mileage on a med school application, so you'd have to wait to apply until you've completed all the usual and customary in-depth activities (like, summer 2020).

Don't take the MCAT until you've completed all the prerequisites. "Planning" to retake the MCAT is a terrible idea, considering that many med schools average all scores earned. Take the MCAT when you're ready and repeatedly scoring in your target zone on practice tests.