Getting accepted into a top level CS program.
blackguardx: Some people here are advocating jumping to a PhD with zero work experience. I think this is a bad idea.Getting a PhD involves very focused research. You want to make sure that you will truly love the field before you go into it.I strongly recommend that you take an R&D job at a well-known company if you can. These large companies often sponsor research with top-notch universities. You might be able to use these relationships to get in. My company's sponsored research with Stanford allows me to work with a professor and grad student there. That can't hurt during the application process.Also, many of these large, research oriented companies will pay for graduate education, although that will probably drop off as the economy tanks.The only downside to getting a job at a large, research oriented company is that these places are often cube farms that epitomize office space and dilbert comic strips. I guess thats why you leave after a few years and go to grad school