Yes, there is hope, but the road to becoming a doctor won't be an easy one. You're going to need some serious, committed damage control to counter the effects of that low GPA, especially since med schools won't even look at apps. with a GPA less than 3.0. Seriously, a screening program will throw it out before human eyes even see it.
1. The easiest way to fix that GPA may be to see if your unique situation qualifies you for retroactive withdrawals from the courses in which you received a D or an F. Ideally, you should have taken a hiatus the moment these personal issues started to take their toll, but it's too late now. Still, considering there was a death and a major illness in the family, you may be able to pull off the retroactive withdrawals. If so, that's an instant GPA boost.
2. If you don't qualify for the retroactive withdrawal, you will have a better time of grade repair if you go DO, since osteopathic schools have a grade replacement policy and allopathic schools do not. If you apply to MD schools, they will average out ALL of your grades, even retakes. So, if you want/are willing to go DO, re-take all courses in which you received C's/D's/F's and voila, GPA repair!
3. If you're aiming for allopathic schools, still re-take any core courses in which you did poorly to prove that you can handle them, then get A's in upper level science & humanities courses to bring up the GPA. You want a 3.5 for average stats and a 3.7 or greater to be competitive. You may need to take post-bacc classes to up your GPA as a result. A 2.48 will take a LONG time to fix this way.
4. Either way, keep your course load low until you can get A's and B's with relative ease and withdraw immediately if a C or lower is likely. A million W's isn't great, but they are ALWAYS better than really, really poor grades. Again, for allopathic schools, there is no way to erase or replace a bad grade.
5. Keep in mind that an upward grade trend helps mitigate bad grades in your freshmen and sophomore years, so aim for a steady grade increase. You can also incorporate your tragic experiences into your personal statement to explain the bad grades and possibly your ability to handle difficult situations.
6. Of course, you'll still need killer EC's, a good MCAT, and all that jazz, but focus on the GPA before piling even more work on.
Good luck and I hope things get better at home!
