There are several potential concerns I could see here.
1) No IS schools. If you people didn't have state schools or schools with significant IS bias, those AAMC GPA/MCAT charts would show much lower odds. Right off the bat this puts you at a disadvantage.
2) Meh EC's. Scattered volunteering. 1 summer of research. Good employment history which shows experience supporting yourself/others. There's nothing here though that sticks out at all.
3) Relatively late application. People who are complete mid to early September have success. But completing late when you have no state schools and somewhat discordant stats won't help you.
4) Applying mostly to low yield schools that typically dont interview too many applicants who get a 38 type score on the MCAT. Look at how many apps these schools you applied to get and/or the IS bias of them. Certainly makes things harder. When you combine the fact a number of schools as gyngyn will always say will see an applicant with a 38 as low yield with the fact your ECs are bland, that's not a good combination for getting II's at schools that routinely only offer II's to 4-8% of OOS applicants.
5) What's your recent grade trend? Not the most pertinent of issues as 3.5/38 is plenty often times for being competitive but no recent demonstration of academic excellence doesn't help your case either. The fact that a school asked for your fall grades perhaps suggests your recent grade trend wasn't great or they weren't completely sold on your academic performance.
6) LORs/essays matter alot here. Note there is a huge huge difference between a LOR that is actually beneficial to you(not all that common) and one that simply doesn't hurt you(much more common). When you aren't getting a single II with a 3.5/38, there is a reasonable chance your LOR is in the latter category as could be your essays.
All in all in and of itself this is hardly some poor app. 3.5/38 historically is a stat combo that gets the majority of applicants with that combo accepted somewhere(although having no IS programs is a big thing). But there are flaws here with this app and if combined with rather meh LORs/essays it isn't that hard to see why this application hasn't been able to land II's yet. The soft factors, the little things and how you present your app matter alot. What is in your app that would make an ADCOM want to vouche for you? The MCAT score is fantastic, but like I said above you are fighting for limited OOS spots. It will take more than that in many situations. What more do you have to make an ADCOM want to fight for you in an admissions commitee meeting? The answer to that question will be key if you have to be a re-applicant and want to see how you can have better luck next cycle if it comes to that(note there is sitll time left in this app cycle).
Weak GPA, low/zero continuity in relevant EC's, abysmally low hours in said EC's. Seems like all of your volunteer work could've been done in 1 summer, assuming your summer of research was an equally light load. Better beef up your clinical exposure ASAP for next year's cycle.
This.
OP, ya got no hook. Nothing in your app that just grabs the adcoms attention other than the MCAT. Maybe if the GPA was higher, stats could be package that hooks you, but late in the game without a hook can be killer. I also believe that one's chances ride on quality of essays and letters more than people think
Agree with all these above, and basically my biggest issue is that your application does not seem tell a consistent story (in addition to the hook that would make it jump off the page) but rather you have a collection of activities you were involved with. Actually, more than telling a story it is important to SHOW why you would be a great person to interview through your activities, PS, and LORs, but of course this is hard to know w/o your PS and LORs.
As others have said, no IS school and somewhat late app is always challenging, made more difficult by discordant GPA and MCAT. Just to make sure - did you double check all required and recommended courses for each school you applied to?
If you're able to do more shadowing in as many specialties as you can ASAP that would be great, and also try and look at your activities and pick one you're most passionate about and try and get more involved in that area in similar but different (multiple) ways to SHOW, not tell your story. These things can be added to an update letter for all schools and, if worst comes to worst, they'd be valuable for next year. I know it is a lot of stress to do all these things while improving on the GPA this year, but it is important these things are done before the next application cycle (JUNE) if needed.
While the MCAT score opens up a lot of doors and makes Allopathic schools possible, it alone is probably not sufficient with the EC's - many applicants with lower MCAT scores simply have more developed EC's and some have a great hook that helps them stand out. Relatively speaking, you've done an excellent job so far, but so has everyone else, making it more challenging to stand out for that II.
From my experience with admissions, to select for an interview at a
minimum the candidate needs to be 1) academically qualified and 2) show that they know what they're getting themselves into (aka shadowing and clinical experience). If I had to pick one thing to focus on first it would be more shadowing, and I would advise to see as many specialties for 1/2 day to a day each if possible (aka like 10 different specialties), although others here might advise to build a relationship with a physician and shadow for a ton of hours in one setting (which I think is less valuable because it is not as broad of exposure AND for allopathic schools an MD letter from purely shadowing is usually worthless...for osteopathic this may be different due to requirement by most (if not all?) to have a DO letter).
Finally if you do have to apply again try and determine if you have any connections to any schools or regions, or find a reason why you would like the schools you're applying to and in whatever way you can try and demonstrate this through your secondary app. I'd also apply to more schools next cycle if it comes to that...
Keep your head up and stay positive about this current cycle, best of luck!
