Tell me how I can improve:

[kkilla]

Hey y'all, I know how much everyone on this website likes to tell other people what to do, and at this point I have decided that I am really going to buckle down and work towards becoming a competitive applicant for medical school.
Here's some stuff you should know about me :
-3.28 GPA, 3.4 sGPA; working on bringing it up this semester (low due to mental health reasons that I am now working on)
-Biological Engineering major at a decent flagship state school; political science minor
-Research experience in a biofuels lab in which I am about to start independent research
-Barista at local coffee shop
-planning on doing clinical volunteering this summer along with summer classes
-open to a gap year; would absolutely love to take a gap year to hike the Appalachian Trail as it has always been a dream of mine
-open to change and realize its a little silly to think like this but I would love to do wilderness medicine someday
-love the outdoors, rock climbing, hiking, swimming, etc. but also a huge political nerd

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer but I thank you all for your time and help.

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[E.Hemingway]

I think you should use your gap year to accumulate a few hundred hours of clinical and volunteering experience, which both appear to be lacking from your resume. I think you should also devote a lot of time and effort to MCAT preparation so you can get a killer score, which may compensate for your relatively low GPA.

 

[kkilla]

oh, also: white, female, very middle class, currently both parents unemployed, sophomore in undergrad

 

[Siromas]

Get that GPA up, rock the MCAT, continue your research and try to get published, establish longitudinal clinical and non-clinical volunteer experience

 

[MiniMD]

IMO your GPA is fine. There's no point in spending so much time barely increasing it when you could increase other aspects of your app. I really don't think you need to increase the amount of research you have already, I know plenty of people who didn't have any research experience prior to med school. And my class was actually told that all the research experience to include on our CV for residency should start post-matriculation.
Take that gap year to travel like you want, spread out your clinical experience, & study for your MCAT. I'm very serious about taking time to travel, it will be good for your mental health and you won't have time except for small weekends once you matriculate. You will also be happy to know that many schools have wilderness medicine organizations, like mine, and also do plenty of hiking on weekends!

 

[Goro]

Hey y'all, I know how much everyone on this website likes to tell other people what to do, and at this point I have decided that I am really going to buckle down and work towards becoming a competitive applicant for medical school.
Here's some stuff you should know about me :
-3.28 GPA, 3.4 sGPA; working on bringing it up this semester (low due to mental health reasons that I am now working on)
-Biological Engineering major at a decent flagship state school; political science minor
-Research experience in a biofuels lab in which I am about to start independent research
-Barista at local coffee shop
-planning on doing clinical volunteering this summer along with summer classes
-open to a gap year; would absolutely love to take a gap year to hike the Appalachian Trail as it has always been a dream of mine
-open to change and realize its a little silly to think like this but I would love to do wilderness medicine someday
-love the outdoors, rock climbing, hiking, swimming, etc. but also a huge political nerd

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer but I thank you all for your time and help.

Get your mental health issues taken care of first. Everything else is secondary. Medical school is a furnace.