Grad school will wait. Grad school will always wait. It is a great time for working in the software business -- lots of stuff happening, lots of demand for tal

Grad school will wait. Grad school will always wait. It is a great time for working in the software business -- lots of stuff happening, lots of demand for talent. My impression, back in my school days, was that the people who had done something else between undergrad and grad school had a certain purposeful air. They tended to know why they were there, and know what they wanted to learn or to do, and they navigated more directly to their goal and graduated faster. Do not fret about admissions. You want to go to engineering or science grad school, right? Then having some work experience will not hurt you. You might consider lining up some recommendation letters now, while you're still fresh in your professors' minds, but three years from now you'll still have the GRE scores, you'll still have the GPA, and you'll presumably still be willing to sign up for N years of being worked like a slave for low wages. You'll be as qualified as ever. ;) (As for "higher starting salary"... one reason to try a job or two first before going back to school is to figure out exactly how much of a premium that advanced degree is going to be in your favorite field. You may find that it doesn't pay off -- you'll spend several years earning grad-student wages, and then discover that at a young startup nobody really cares if you've got a Ph.D.)