what are my chances? please help!

[bluemachine]

current senior at top 5 school, CA resident, ORM, low-income
MCAT 31 (12PS, 10V, 9BS), cGPA and sGPA = 3.5
bio major
president of 4+ clubs on campus, including sports, volunteering, hobbies
various research and school awards
pending 1st author on clinical research paper, pending publication on neuroscience paper, several poster presentations at NIH and at conferences
3+ years of research at school and NIH
200+ hrs of shadowing, 200+ hrs of clinical experience, 200+ hrs of non-clinical volunteering


im also planning to take a gap year before applying to med school. my current problem is my MCAT. i plan on retaking it sometime in 2014 (before school ends). when would you recommend to retake for it not to interfere with apps? also, what score and what breakdown should i be shooting for (roughly speaking) for me to stand a chance at UC's and top 30 schools? my GPA won't be improving much (at most to a 3.55), and i am really shooting for 36+ on my MCAT the second time around (studied for like two weeks and took it, pre-occupied with a lot of other stuff). however, i will be studying for the retake while in school as well.

thanks!

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[bluemachine]

bumpp

 

[samsunimomo]

3.5 from an Ivy League college (minus Princeton) is still pretty low, especially for CA medical schools, and the 31 doesn't exactly help your case either. Perhaps you should rethink your strategy in regards to the schools that you want to target and spend less time on extracurriculars and more on boosting your grades for this year.

 

[Goro]

Concur

3.5 from an Ivy League college (minus Princeton) is still pretty low, especially for CA medical schools, and the 31 doesn't exactly help your case either. Perhaps you should rethink your strategy in regards to the schools that you want to target and spend less time on extracurriculars and more on boosting your grades for this year.

 

[bluemachine]

i am at P, but i still understand that my GPA is low regardless. however, as a current senior, i will be trying my hardest to raise my GPA to like a 3.6 (that's as high as it can go this year). i am also definitely retaking the MCAT. what score should i be shooting for? for example, if i end up with a balanced 35+ along with a 3.5-3.6 and strong extracurriculars/LORs, would i be somewhat competitive for UC's/top-tiers? if not, what else would i need?

 

[bluemachine]

anybody else?

 

[Jamie561]

i am at P, but i still understand that my GPA is low regardless. however, as a current senior, i will be trying my hardest to raise my GPA to like a 3.6 (that's as high as it can go this year). i am also definitely retaking the MCAT. what score should i be shooting for? for example, if i end up with a balanced 35+ along with a 3.5-3.6 and strong extracurriculars/LORs, would i be somewhat competitive for UC's/top-tiers? if not, what else would i need?

Nope not with that GPA. Also getting a 35+ is not trivial.

 

[ES2]

People have gotten into California schools with those stats before, it will be rough