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Would recommend technician position, nothing beats full time research- unless you feel your lacking classes relevant to your program. Also think of the $$

I'm also attending UCSF this Fall- can't mu'fricken wait. Though I'm DSCB, we'll probably be in classes together

Besides your standard top tier institutions (Stanford, MIT, etc.) I don't think another university has emerged as a synthetic bio "powerhouse". The field is still relatively young and I think only recently has been moving into these chemical biology/bioengineering programs. I wish there was a synthetic biology degree though, that would be baller. Your stats are reasonable for these programs if you have a good SOP/letters. I would throw in Berkeley as well because of LBNL, Doudna, and other emerging PIs. There's supposed to be some sort of CRISPR oriented institute being constructed in the area that is likely to be affiliated with Berkeley. Check out biochemistry/molecular biology programs too like UCSF TETRAD (Lim, Gartner), and UCLA (Kosuri, Yeates). Also, Scripps institute in San Diego does super rad synth bio stuff like custom tRNAs and novel nucleic acids. Hope this helps friend

The requirement for a subject test is on a school-by-school basis so you would need to check specific programs you're interested in. Most US schools say something on their webpage about it being recommended. However, the majority of advice I have gotten from current grads (and this website) is that you should only take it if you have something in your course/academic history that suggests you don't have a sufficient background.

Might you be able to elaborate on why you think Magoosh was not helpful? I am currently using Magoosh as a resource and would be interested to hear your opinion. Besides that company I have also used the practice material straight from ETS- something along the lines of "Officlal GRE general preparation" and it seems to be helpful as well. I would try to tackle quantitative like any other subject- identify your weaknesses first and then independently develop those areas. For example, I found I had difficulties doing combinations/permutation problems and found other resources to learn how to tackle them- now they're easy points. Else, always answer the prompt directly (select ALL answers above X) and write out an equation for anything possible. Best of luck fam.