Grad School or Work After Graduation?

[Question]

Grad School in Europe or Microsoft or IBM and lots of other questions
Too many options are currently available or maybe I have lost a few of them.

One is grad school in Europe for robotics. Three semesters of courses and one semester thesis - that seems to be the norm in Europe, no two year thesis. Schools aren't as reputatable as UofT - Warsaw University of Technology and University of Genova. Full scholarship but is computer vision and image processing more promising future? The program is extremely small about 45 students split between the three university.

What is the future of robotics and the possible jobs available?

Another is fulltime SDET position at Microsoft for windows team. No real info at all yet but I might have lost the offer by requesting a late December start. Is a tester position really that promising? I'll make money and all but loss the experience in Europe. It should be hard to get into Microsoft right?

Requested the late start in Microsoft because of an opportunity to do research in Europe at EPFL in computer hardware - parallel systems group. Not sure about the area and not sure if I can go in the fall instead of summer since I'll have graduated. But the time in Switzerland sounds great. But I might not be able to go to robotics program with this. Everything depends on the timing and scheduling. EPFL is a reputable school for computer engineering so maybe I should aim to go to these type of schools in Canada/US/Europe?

So should I give up the chance to go to EMARO for someone else in the future? Travelling around Europe sounds fun but is it practical? EPFL in the summer sounds great but will I want to go there for grad school?

How does European school compare to North American ones? Is MIT/CMU/Cornell/UWashington better? So confused.

Has anyone here went to EPFL before?

Couldn't go to EPFL in the summer as it should be because of IBM Extreme Blue in the summer. Maybe because of this Microsoft is unhappy. But with EB, I might get offers from IBM for FT. What is the difference between IBM and Microsoft?

Too many possiblities and not sure where to go since don't know where the heart is. Grad school right after undergrad or after working a few years. But after a few years might have commitments that make grad school impossible. Where is the future headed?

Need advice and help to decide where to go in the future...

 

[Question]

It seems like the work at MS might not be that interesting at all...
What should I do grad school abroad, work after two internships, or two internships at that's all...

 

[chessmaster]

I decided to do grad school part time while working full time. The benefit was that my company paid the graduate tuition. The downside was that it took me twice as long to complete my master's degree and it was really touch to balance work and school.

I don't advise working and doing grad school at the same time because eventually your schoolwork will start making an impact on your performance at work or vice versa. You won't get as much out of the classes as you would if you went to school full time and just focused on school.

So I would recommend going to grad school directly from undergrad and/or to take a year off of school to work, but then if you decide to go back to school then quit your job and go back. You will enjoy school and get more out of it. And when you start working you will be more productive.

Trying to balance work, school and some kind of social life is really tough unless you have some kind of kick back job that isn't very demanding.