Junior, How to Improve? Need Pre-Med Advice please

[peanutbutterchocolate]

Hello all--
Spring semester of junior year about to start and I would greatly appreciate your opinions on my chances on getting into medical school because I feel like I'm doing things a little non-traditional and all the advice I keep hearing is confusing and contradictory! Many thanks to you, in advance, for reading through and commenting.

- I attend a top 10 private research university in the U.S.
- I am majoring in Cultural Anthropology.
- I'm planning on taking a gap year, MCAT in senior spring.
- Past one and a half summers have been classes and one half summer, research.
- Current GPA is 3.688 (I know, yikes. STEM hasn't been my strong suit in college All other classes I've received A, A- in *sigh*)
- I just spent the semester abroad in Vietnam, S. Africa, and Argentina on a comparative public health, medical anthropology program.
- I have completed 50+ hours of shadowing in various healthcare settings (hospital, private, community healthcare clinic)
- I completed 11 mos. as an undergrad. research assistant in a lab (stopped last spring bc was going abroad. Postdoc changed labs, too. Btw, my lab, also, left the state so needless to say, I will not be returning this spring.) Unfortunately, no poster sessions or publications came of my exp.
- I'm planning on volunteering in a hospital this spring and next fall.
- I have been lightly involved in like... class government (i.e. class of 2019 fall festival!) in positions like secretary and housing coordinator which are roles I actually put a fair amount of work in.
- I was a freshman advisor one year.

My questions and concerns:
I know obviously, my GPA needs work, and I am going to try my darndest to get A's in my remaining ~3~ premed classes (chem 2, stats, biochem)...

But how can I improve my extracurriculars? I'm worried I don't really have many strong recs or anything of ...substance... ?

Should I be looking for another lab to work in? (I think helping out with clinical research could be really cool and fun)

Thank you so much for your response!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[vanillawafer]

Hospice or medical scribing are great ways to get some clinical hours, which can boost your extracurriculars. You could also do some non-clinical work or get involved in some leadership positions (clubs, etc.). Your GPA looks great right now, just keep up the good work, kill the MCAT and it looks like you'll be fine, depending on your sGPA and cGPA breakdown.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Your GPA isn't the problem here-- it's a 3.7, which is the matriculant average, so I'm not sure why you're so concerned about it.

The only thing that sticks out to me is a lack of community service in things outside of medicine. The shadowing hours are more than enough, research is good, the plan to do some hospital volunteering is good. Just throw in something non-medicine related, get a decent MCAT score, and you'll be fine.

 

[medDaisuki]

You need more community service hours. Also you said you have not been doing well in stem classes but I think medical schools will consider your sgpa. so make sure it is not too low lol