Is a low GPA automatically a deal breaker?

[Bubbless 9]

Hello,

I am currently a third year in a bilingual university in Ontario and my GPA is around 3.1 (had a very bad incident happen to me first year and got diagnosed with clinical depression last year). 

I was born in QC but moved to ON at a young age, my ECs include: tutoring French since I was in grade 8, volunteer French tutor at my university, and recently became an activist for french minority rights in Ontario and joined the Université de l'Ontario francais project. I also worked two summers in the French education board and a job at the university. I have a really strong relationship with two of my profs who I believe would write excellent recommendation letters and would focus my PS on why I believe an education at McGill would help with my activism. 

My question is, is it worth even applying to McGill considering they put a lot of emphasis on academic excellence with my low GPA? Would my EC and PS be enough to save me from that?

Thank you in advance! 

[thesizzlingwok 55]

I'm not well-versed in McGill's admissions process so I can't speak to it very much. However, more broadly, the point I was looking to make is that some schools have an "access" admissions application in which you can provide some context to the extenuating circumstances that caused your subpar grades. This could be grief, illness, victim of a crime, etc. It is quite a broad category and it is still very competitive, but it sounds like you've really become engaged in your community and worked really hard and the only thing on paper holding you back is your GPA, so maybe I'd look into McGill's admissions more and see if they have an access category or something like it, or if they don't, possibly open up your options a bit more and look into a school nearby or that fits your criteria of what you're looking for and apply there! McGill is a great school, but you'll receive a great legal education wherever you go, but I understand if you're looking to learn civil law that it narrows your options, but if unfortunately McGill is unaccommodating to your GPA circumstances going elsewhere would be a great alternative! 

[Groucho 22]

Usually they want a 3.4-3.5 at the minimum

[artsydork 5647]

Def need a high lsat to offset

[droxxy 0]

I was admitted with a GPA comparable to yours with a similar reason behind it, but as mentioned above I did have a high lsat to help offset it, and it was quite clearly out of step with my other years of schooling if they looked at my transcript.

[1qaz 4]

apply, talk about in your cover letter.

can get in with low gpa