Should I give up on grad school?

[spiderspider93]

Hi, I'm a computer engineering student. I'm set to graduate this year and I have a decent GPA of 3.2 however I was hoping to grad school in robotics/AI and I realized my GPA is very bad in that respect. I just had a really bad year (personal problems) which really pulled my GPA down. I know that's on me and no one else. I'm sure I can get back to 3.4ish in the next two semesters.

Is there anything else I could do to improve my chances of getting into a decent school for Masters? Is it worth extending my classes by a semester to spend more time devoted to research and improve my GPA? Or should I just focus on my career? Thank you.

PS: If I posted this in the wrong thread let me know. I checked the other threads and this seemed to be the correct one to me. 

[fuzzylogician]

Hi there, this is a fine place to post. I would really suggest talking to a faculty member in your department about these questions. Someone who knows what the profiles of successful applicants tend to look like, and can understand the details of what your application will look like. I'm in a different field so I can't comments on specifics of the GPA but it'll be very important that you get strong LORs, and having any kind of research experience will be a big plus. Those are two things that you can work on to improve your chances. With a less than stellar GPA you'll also want a strong GRE score, and that too is something you can do to improve your chances of getting into a good school. For the question of whether you should just focus on your career or go to grad school, you should ask yourself what your long-term goals are and whether you need a graduate degree to get there. Maybe so, but maybe not. And maybe you'll learn that in your field some practical work experience can go a long way. Again, talk to faculty advisors or the career center at your school. They will usually have good information and they tend to be under-utilized by students.