For most of my pre-requisites I have received grades in the B-C range.
While a couple C's aren't going to hurt, generally speaking such as if you had mostly A's with a couple random C's, having mostly B's and C's will hurt you a lot. Half of the pre-reqs are foundational and are comparatively much easier than classes in medical school - not to mention, again, are based on the foundations of bio and chem. In first year of med school, you'll be tested on topics such as cell bio and biochem, and they will indirectly come back for boards.
This was due to the structure of the class and the exam only based grading
99% of medical school is also based only on grading. You also do not get to really choose the structure of the classes here either since you go where you get in, and it's a cohort with a single professor/physician (or the same cohort year to year) teaching the course for the most part.
I am inquiring about getting this C or higher requirement waved so I may be able to go on to the next semester of Organic Chemistry
Having a D demonstrates that you do not even have the fundamental knowledge of the course material on which the next semester is based. A D is basically failing. On top of this, you retook the class and got the same grade. At the very least a C may have been expected to have gone an entire semester already.
GPA is below a 3.0 and is at around a 2.8
Average GPA's for DO admissions is around a 3.4-3.5 I believe, and for MD is a 3.5-3.6 give or take. Don't quote me on those numbers though - it's near, but I don't know off hand the exact ranges. Either way, 0.5-1.0 GPA point from being where you need to be. No MCAT score will make up for having that low of a GPA along with B-C pre-reqs + a D in a preqreq both times it was taken.
My extracurriculars include about 100 hours of volunteering, about 50 hours of shadowing, 1 year of research, and being on the board of two clubs for a year each
Did anything come of the research? Any publications, posters/presentations? I'd suggest more volunteering. I think the shadowing is fine, but a little more wouldn't hurt.
I am open to a gap year and possibly doing a masters in that year to start fresh and have a new chance to have a good GPA.
You would absolutely require a minimum of 1 gap year. However, I'm not sure what I'd recommend. A Post-bacc is what will help you actual GPA, but it would still take a lot of course work to get your GPA up since you'll have completed an entire degree. Its much more difficult to fix that. An SMP (masters) may be the better route in some ways, but usually people who do theres have the GPA to get in and just didnt, or are just below. You are well below, and thus doing an SMP will be extremely difficult, and your ability to get the required grades for any linkage is questionable.
I also plan to study hard and do well on my MCAT which I hope would offset my grades
Again, no MCAT will offset a 2.8 GPA. As well with your 2 attempts at organic chem 1 getting 2 D's, and not having or organic chem 2... and I presume no biochem since you dont have organic chem, and mostly B's and C's, you're outlook is not good for the MCAT at this time. I suggest cancelling it, or rescheduling it really far out, much further than march.
I am also wondering if I even have a chance of making it to Medical School. I am also interested in Law School but feel I am too far gone and don't know which I want to do.
I'm going to be completely direct. At this moment, no you do not have a chance of medical school.
To have a chance, you're going to require a lot of GPA repair and a great MCAT. The GPA needs to come first otherwise the MCAT doesnt matter regardless. It can be done, but it will require a lot more time, probably 2 years os solid post-bacc work.
If you're seriously considering law school already, then maybe medicine isn't really for you. It's a common theme of "if you can see yourself doing anything outside of medicine, do that." I believe it to be true. Medicine is hard (financially as a student, stress, time, lifestyle, etc). It's not always worth all of the time and effort and/or debt for some. If you see yourself in law, going down this path that will already take you extra time for GPA repair and MCAT will likely have you regret the decision.
You just need to be sure at this point before you waste time and money along with opportunity cost.
Good luck in whatever you choose to do.
