What should I do to improve my profile to EE/CS grad school (to get fund also) ?

Graduate School
1

I graduated in BSEE with just an acceptable GPA (3.3) because I screwed up in my final project, so my chance for good grad school is very limited.Thus, I decided to spend 2 years to work in the industry, I got job at an embedded software engineer at a little bit well-known name in the semiconductor industry. However, my desire to go back to the States to obtain a higher degree is still in my head. I’m not really sure I’m on the right path to improve my profile. So I have some following questions ?

  1. Does 2 years working experience give any advantages in the admission and getting fund, even just partial fund ?
  2. Should I quit my job and get a Research Assistant job at university to get experience in research (Cause I have none) ?
  3. I graduated for about a year, is is weird to ask some of my old profs for LoRs because they may not remember me

Thanks in advance for any help

2

You should be able to get letters of reference from your old professors but you have to make an initial contact early and remind them of what you have been doing and what your goals are.

As for getting into a program without much research experience, you might need to start with a Masters degree and maybe you will have to self-fund for a year or so until you get someone to pick you up as a research student. Another option might be to apply to a program which has only Masters and where you will have a better chance of being funded.

3

Thanks for your answer. I think about the option of self-funding in the first year of MS. But I still wonder what chances of being admitted to the grad school with none of research experience and low GPA. I aim for top 30-40 in EE/CS grad school.