I just read through all of these posts and it made me so happy to see that there are people like me out there. I want to share my own story as well. I graduated from a top private university with a 2.6 GPA. I don't have much of an excuse other than the fact that I wasn't focused and wasn't even into what I was studying. I started off as pre-med, and those weed-out classes killed my GPA. I finally changed my major after realizing medicine was not going to be in my future. By the time my junior and senior year rolled around, I did a little better, but not enough to get my cumulative GPA up by much. I did get awarded some money to do research with a professor and I did present a poster, so I had this going for me, but literally nothing else.
Luckily, I was able to get a job as a research assistant almost right after graduating, with someone in my field. I worked there for a year and started applying to MPH programs. My GREs were decent but not great (152 V, 158 Q). I was accepted into an MPH program and graduated the MPH with a 3.8 GPA while working full time.
To others that have considered whether addressing your low GPA helps--I did. I just included a paragraph about it. No need to dwell on it, but I think it does help to acknowledge your mistakes. I think doing that, along with my research experience, is probably what got me in. I remember seeing that acceptance letter and re-reading it a bunch of times to make sure I had read correctly.
Now I am looking to apply to PhD programs. My undergrad GPA may still prevent me from getting in but I am going to try. By the time I apply, I'll have 5+ years of research experience, a handful of publications and presentations, as well as really good LORs.