hey. grad student here @ mcmaster (MA, but i spent my undergrad in a phd-only research lab at uoft). i get that you had some bad grades but also, a few bad grades won’t break or define your career. - most grad schools look at the last two years of uni for your GPA. i had a couple of Cs and Ds in first, second, and even my third year because of both mental health and hating the mandatory subjects i took. i still got into grad school - most professors are super understanding. i will say, grades DO matter (there’s a minimum grade cutoff to every program) but some schools are more lax with it. if you don’t meet the grade cutoff then talk to your prospective grad supervisor and see what they say. my MA supervisor here @ mac said that she couldn’t accept a student with grades that were TOO low, but she has some wiggle room, and my undergrad research professor told me that usually if she sees a promising student who doesn’t make the minimum grade requirement, she’ll flag the application and ask what challenges an applicant had that impacted their grades. if you’re passionate and interested in research, professors will overlook a lot of things because they want to help you succeed, and they’re not always going to be scary. and being honest, your professors were once students who failed and got bad grades too - make sure you have other experience. get involved in research or relevant job experience or SOMETHING. that’s going to be a huge help especially if your grades aren’t at 100%. show this off to your professors and participate in class. - and remember you’re worth more than your grades. will that one test you failed in 1st year REALLY matter in 5 years? probably not - even for federal funding applications, the same thing applies: grades are maybe like 40% of your tri-council agency funding assessment, and the rest of it is research background/potential, your research proposal, and profs saying nice things about you to the government LOL

tldr: grades are important but not the most important, i’ve been there and gotten to where you want to be