[elmarschraml]

Go work in industry for a bit before you go to grad school.

Why?

You already know academia, but not industry. There is a good chance that you will like working in industry, and after a year or two will think that going back to school would have been a waste of time. And if not, you can always go to grad school later.

Even if you are already set on going to grad school, having worked in industry will give you a much better idea of what really matters to users and applications in the real world and will probably give you good ideas about what direction to take your research.

And on the practical side, you can make more money in an industry job, so you can save up some money, and spend the time in grad school not having to worry about finances.