I'm a senior and I'm hoping to apply next cycle to matriculate Fall 2022 after my gap year. I've begun to compile my hours and statistics and what not and just want to get some feedback about whether or not I'm setting my sights too high given my lack of clinical experience. I certainly could've (/should've) gotten involved in volunteering at the hospital, but by the time I realized that I was juggling quite a lot with my ECs and class load (not really a good excuse but); more importantly I think I just didn't realize how important these hours were. My school didn't have any premed advising for my first two years and I definitely, definitely should have done more research but all I'd known was to focus on my GPA/MCAT and to "get involved" (nobody said what in!). Anyways, I'll list some more about me and my current school list (I'm hoping to narrow it down to 15 schools) and if anyone could give any advice for what I should do in my last semester that would be great.
State of residence: CT
I am an URM (AA) female
I plan to take on gap year working at my lab and getting more clinical experience
Degree: B.S. in Quantitative Bio, minors in Chemistry and Education
Cumulative GPA: 3.6 (what I predict after this semester, pretty confident in this prediction)--upward trending GPA, started first year with a 3.36
Science GPA: 3.6 (confident prediction as well)
MCAT: 520
Research Experience: currently about 1000 hours at my lab where we do neuroscience research, predict I'll get another 200 this semester and then ~2000 more hours during my gap year.
Publications/Abstracts/Posters: 3rd author paper in revisions for nature genetics, 3 second-author abstracts, poster presentation at society for neuroscience; will likely have more chances to publish/present during my gap year
Clinical experience: ~50 hours of shadowing in GI, anesthesia, and ob/gyn; I am looking to volunteer at a COVID site at my school where I would be directing people and instructing them on how to self-collect samples (I've seen on reddit this would count as clinical experience but I'm not sure). My PI is helping me network with her colleagues in hopes of finding a clinical volunteering experience this semester, and she is planning to pair me with a mentor (a doctor) during my gap year so I can add a clinical aspect to our research during my gap year
Volunteering: 100 hours total of tutoring (both peers and young children), food bank work, and voter registration drives
Leadership/extracurriculars: two years president of a club (I'd guess I've put in at least 200 hrs doing things for/running the club), because of which I was invited to and attended a very prestigious event; executive positions (vice president/director/technique coach) on two dance teams, one dance team I've been part of for 4 years, the other for 2.5 years
Internships/awards: ADA internship award, summer internship at Yale (went virtual b/c of covid)
Employment: I have been working as a peer tutor for 2 years, this has been an incredibly meaningful experience for me b/c I have a passion for education as well. I also have experience in customer service from a high end retail job
Searching various forums has made me super worried that I don't have enough EC hours and I may be shooting my shot. Without a reliable, established premed advising system at my school I'm feeling pretty lost for what my school list should look like or if I'm screwing myself over by applying this next cycle. I really don't want to take two gap years solely b/c of clinical hours but I wanted to get other opinions. Here's my school list at the moment, the one's I've bolded are the ones I'm almost definitely applying to:
Harvard
UPenn
Columbia
WashU
Yale
Duke
NYU
Emory
Vanderbilt
UPSOM
UMich
UCLA
Ohio State
UNC
Stony Brook
UWisconsin
BU
UConn
GWSOM
Brown
Georgetown
Tufts
Sorry for the long post but I appreciate any advice!
