The single most important thing med schools look for is maturity. yes, GPA, MCAT scores, volunteering, time with vulnerable populations– all of those things count. But unless you can demonstrate that you aren’t operating from a “TV land” version of what doctors do (deliver adorable babies, diagnose a cute toddler with a highly curable disease, explain to the delighted parents that they are pregnant with twins) you won’t get past the first screen.
It is VERY hard to demonstrate maturity if you zipped through HS. Even with a gap year…. you will be young compared to a 24 year old who has had life experience– he or she worked at a hospice center. Volunteered at a homeless shelter. Coached basketball for a group of kids with CP. Worked as a dietary aid at a nursing home. You will be a smart and talented kid compared to the other people applying, who understand that as a doctor, people will throw up on you, throw feces AT you, will walk into your ER or clinic in the throes of opiate withdrawal, will be non-compliant with their meds, will need a foot amputated because they are in denial about their diabetes.
Please stay in HS. Keep working hard. Get a job; do volunteer work; get exposed to people outside of your family, neighborhood, community. Learn to balance your studying with getting enough exercise, sleep, good eating habits. Having a social life.
The world isn’t running out of diseases. There is no rush.