RCube123

Hello, I am new to this forum and I need some advice. I just graduated from college with a GPA of 2.8 studying Electrical Engineering. I have one class left this fall and depending how I do, my GPA will go either up or down, probably not by very much. I also started off in Community College for my first two years and I remember my GPA being a little above a 3.0 before I transferred. How do graduate schools factor in grades from Community College courses? What about a course that I withdrew from and got a W? I remember having to repeat a couple courses due to poor performance. I think my problem in UGrad was time management and work prioritization and I felt I could've done a lot better, it's something I have to work on. During my last two UGrad years, I've developed a specific interest in EE and would like to continue studying that concentration in grad school. However, I don't have any research experience and I haven't taken the GRE yet. I will take it at the end of next month and I will try to do my best on it, especially the Q section. I plan to take it a couple times before applying to grad schools. One nice thing is that I got a couple professors who said they would be willing to write me LORs. I've read that going to graduate school with such a GPA isn't impossible, I would have to work really hard in other areas to help offset the poor GPA. Based on what I've read, I heard it's a good idea to build an alternate transcript by taking graduate courses and trying to do well in them. Geographically, I live closest to UC Berkeley and Stanford, but I don't know if they'll let me take a couple classes per quarter/semester to build an alternate transcript. I'm hoping that by taking a couple courses I can find a POI that would let me do some research in his/her lab. Not saying that I'll get into Berkeley or Stanford, but if I could get some research experience, I could put that down on my SOP when applying for other schools as well. I would also like to work in industry mainly to gain experience and pay off college loans. I'm currently job hunting right now and if I start working I don't know if my employer will let me take time off or work part-time to take a course or two. Ideally, I would like to find a research lab I could work at, maybe they would be a little more flexible to me taking a couple courses. How long should I spend building an alternate transcript? How do I get into a research lab even though I'm out of school? I know grad schools usually prefer that applicants have research experience, but will industry work experience count as well? I plan on applying to a Masters program first, then depending on how I do with coursework and research, continue on with a PhD. My long term goal is to eventually get a PhD in EE and go into R&D afterwards. I'm planning to start a Masters program in about 2 or 3 years and I'm hoping within that time, I could build up a strong application profile. Is that a reasonable time to start grad school given my academic situation?