Anyone gotten into an MS program with a low GPA?

[CivilTwilight]

In undergrad (mechanical engineering) I enjoyed doing research a lot, and from what I can tell getting a graduate degree is very helpful for getting into research jobs. I was looking at thesis-based MS programs  . . . However I have a big problem with my app: my GPA. My cumulative GPA is 2.96, just under the cutoff for most grad programs. My major GPA is about the same so it's no help, and my last 4 semesters weren't that good so there's no nice upward trend. I had some mental health issues that got in the way that I've since done a lot of work on (I graduated almost 6 years ago) so I feel good about trying school again, but I know it's hard to convince admissions committees that you're ready. I wanted to ask if anyone else had experience getting into engineering MS programs with a less-than-impressive GPA, especially one that is under the GPA cutoffs like mine? What kind of schools did you apply to and what were the results? What helped, what didn't?

[fallfish]

Hi there,

I see this was posted a while ago. Did you end up applying? 

My undergraduate gpa was a 2.9. I studied environmental science with a mathematics minor at a top 25 university. I got into several public health masters programs including schools in the top 5. I know this might be different than research based programs as mine was professional. However, I did transfer after a year to a different program at the same university and graduated with an MS in ecology.