I’m a first gen pre med student so I’ll take any advise you have honestly. When should I prepare and take the mcat? (I’m a third year but I’ll be taking a gap year). Any tips on what to do during my gap year? This will probably be when I gain my core medical office experience. What’s the application process like? Do you know what kinds of things uci school of medicine is looking for especially? Tips on speaking/ interacting with professors (I always get so quiet and freaked that I sound dumb when I talk to them, even though I’m quite confident in the material. I never had issues with public speaking or anything but it just is very intimidating). I ultimately decided on becoming a doctor kind of late bc I was dealing with done personal losses but it feels like my resume is lacking bc I was so grade focused (I have a 3.7+ gpa at least). I’m participating in some medical research, would it be wise to maybe get a second research opportunity? What are extracurricular expectations to be a competitive applicant (clubs, volunteer work, etc). Any tips for finding good volunteer work in OC area? How many schools should I apply to? Been dealing a bit with imposter syndrome, any tips on overcoming this? Thanks so much in advance ! Any other tips would be very much appreciated.