<p>Usually i am against posting questions seeking advice on forums, but this is one with knowledgeable people; therefore, i make an exception.</p>
<p>BACKGROUND
I am a senior at UC Irvine studying Computer Science with a GPA of around 3.3(a couple D's and a W on transcript). I want to get PhD in CS from one of the top 30 graduate programs. I have not yet taken the GRE but expect around 725 and 550 on it.</p>
<p>I have a sufficient internship experience at good software companies but only one research experience. </p>
<p>DILEMMA
Now with my stats, it seems that my chance to get admitted to a PhD are remote but i think i can get a good job in of the top companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, etc. </p>
<p>If i apply for PhD, i will start getting responses my March/April. But most top companies hire in the Fall semester for people graduating in the following summer.</p>
<p>It seems that if i pursue the PhD option i might lose both chances of getting admitted and working for a top company. On the other hand if a apply for jobs, most likely i will have to accept/reject an offer before i hear from the graduate school.</p>
<p>So what do you suggests. What should be my line of attack. What is the best option.</p>
<p>Why don't you apply for jobs and apply for grad school? If you get a job that you think is worth it take it and just reject your grad school offers. If you don't get a job offer good enough to keep you away from grad school wait for your grad school admissions. You can always try to get a job after admissions if you aren't admitted to the grad schools you want.</p>
<p>I'm with viscious. If you had to pick one, I would focus on the job right now. Some companies will finance your return to school to get a master's degree: Ds on your transcript could sink you, and a master's degree would give you a clean transcript and a chance to aim for a 3.8-9. The master's degree would also give you more research experience. Then you would have really good odds for getting into those top schools. Even if you didn't get the master's but just worked for a couple years, it would put some distance between you and your grades, so that you can say something in your SOP like "I was young and didn't know better, but I've matured."</p>
<p>And let's say you got a job offer, accepted it, then found out you were admitted to grad school. You could defer grad school for a year and work, so that you wouldn't royally **** off the company that hired you. Or you could just back out on the job offer, I guess.</p>
<p>I really don't understand what you're expecting to hear. Do you want someont to tell you to screw grad school and only apply to jobs? Vice versa? It doesn't seem like its too much of a dilemma. Find out what your options actually are by applying to both.</p>
<p>Just apply everywhere. I'm sure that the companies do expect some people to be in process of applying to grad schools and it's pretty tough out there. If you get a job offer, take it if you haven't heard back from grad schools yet. Then decide from there.</p>
<p>There's a good point that some companies will finance a masters but you wan the PhD.... is there reason for that?</p>