The fact that you're not asking "what are my chances" and instead timidly asking "What does apply broadly mean" suggests that you need to apply to more places than you think you should apply to unless there's something else you're not telling us.
I wonder what year the OP is in med school. I hope earlier on than MS3 because the post is super frustrating in lack of detail. Every question could be answered with "it depends" and people could give very concrete advice to the OP's specific situation. I would definitely second the comment above about the amount of timidity being shown from a literal anonymous post really indicating that, for the OP in particular, the issues raised are more likely to be dealbreakers than for the average applicant.
You're both absolutely right. As I disclosed in my OP, I am not a competitive applicant. I'm a DO student with a preclinical course failure and poor GPA so I'd say I am, in fact, a below-average applicant. Hence, the advice I have received to dual apply and apply broadly.
I'm a rising 4th year DO student, finishing rotations, applying for auditions, and getting ready for COMLEX Level 2 and USMLE Step 2. I partially do not want to dox myself, but I am also aware that I'll get some tough love if I share my app here. However, I agree that concrete advice about my specific situation could be helpful. So, here it is:
Red flags: Preclinical course failure, bottom quartile
Undergrad: California mid-tier UC
School: DO school on the West Coast
Preclinicals: Graded, did poorly as mentioned previously, especially in 1st year, fair upward trend through 2nd year and into clinicals
Clinicals: My school has graded clinicals. I've gotten all As except a B+ in OBGYN and an A- in IM. My evaluations are excellent.
Level 1: Pass on first attempt, didn't take Step 1 (kicking myself for letting my school convince me to not to and am still considering doing this)
Level 2: Haven't taken Level/Step 2 yet. I do plan on both USMLE and COMLEX. I've done well on shelf exams and expect I'll get an average score on Level/Step 2.
LOR: I've gotten LORs from 2 FM, 1 IM, and 2 Psych. No auditions yet, no letters from proper academic faculty.
Research:
med school: 2 psych/addiction-related posters at national psych conferences, 2 addiction/psych-related talks/presentations (1 at a national DO conference and 1 just at a research symposium)
pre-med: 1 small pub and 1 talk related to basic sciences in psych, 2 posters and 1 talk basic sciences unrelated to psych
EC:
-Extensive, longitudinal leadership in national DO student org, especially related to advocacy and overdose prevention organizing
-involvement in national psych subspecialty org
-President of psych interest group
-volunteering with harm reduction and homeless outreach orgs
-involvement in organized medicine, advocacy, and resolution writing
-TA for a medical humanities course
-3 years working in community psych program dual-diagnosis treatment facility
Other: immediate family member with SMI, contributed to my initial desire to pursue this field (not a driving factor for several years though, in case you were worried)
Priorities (ranked high to low):
1. Match psych
2. Match at a program with good addictions and community psych exposure
3. Urban setting
I have ties to the West Coast, southwest, IL, NY, SC and NC.
I think there are parts of my application that are compelling and I know that I interview well, but I suspect that my primary problem will be getting screened out by a lot of programs for my poor GPA/class rank and having a course failure. And also not having step 1 if I end up not taking it.
**While we're at it, the reason I did so poorly in preclinicals is that I had horrible depression. I know this explanation is seen as a red flag, so I'm not sure how to frame this if/when it comes up.