I completely agree with this. This modern idea that after high school you go straight to college and then straight to a job is absolutely terrible. If I had spent a year or two looking around at jobs, trying things out, and learning and studying on my own before going to a community college for gen ed for two years and then transferring to a larger university to pursue a bachelor's or whatever, I'd have saved a lot of money, time, self esteem, and heartache.

Well, to be honest, even then I think the higher education system is almost as terrible as the public high school education system, but that's a whole other deal, haha.

But the opportunity cost of grad school is utterly insane.

Yeah. I'm really happy I waited so long to go back to school, even though I'm bored out of my skull most of the time.

I'd wager that a good chunk of those the are soon to graduate and those that recently have don't know any more about what they want to do than me, they just pretend they do because who is honestly going to say they've spent four years of money, time, tears, stress, and depression getting to this point and all they have to show for it is likely a few addictions, a job that isn't as good as it was supposed to be, and some silent regret?

I studied MIS. Now I work at Microsoft, where I design software for a $1 bln+ product and consult for top 10 websites. I'm saying this as a counterexample to the low opinion some on this thread have expressed re: MIS because, in my experience, MIS is not a worthless major. I would benefit on a daily basis if I had paid more attention in several classes that I did not think were applicable/particularly worthwhile at the time. However, I agree with Emon that CS undergrad + MBA after experience is a great way to go deep technically and then move into a strategic role in the software industry or a tech-related field. I did not listen to that advice, but I do think it's sound. Like me, it sounds like you're already far down the MIS path, so read on.

Since you're asking, here's my advice:
Get experience (others have posted good suggestions like building a potfolio, starting out small pro bono or super cheap and gaining credibility/momentum). Be diligent. 09 was a rough year for college grads entering the workforce. Going to networking events, information sessions, industry events, etc., I noticed that I always ran into the same couple of people from school. They all got good jobs. It's like athletics -- you need to practice consistently and you need to genuinely enjoy it.

I'm recruiting at a college campus this month and I will be looking not for students with a stellar GPA (although that helps get people's attention), but students who can demonstrate to me that they are living their skills and are passionate about technology. Example: I had to take summer classes one year because I had three majors (MIS, Finance, Int'l Bus). I turned that into my "summer of code" when I wasn't in class and built a CMS for a school club from scratch. Looking back, it was very simplistic, but I learned a lot and ended up managing a team of engineering students the next year to maintain/improve the codebase. I also did a short internship later that summer.

Something I didn't do much of but saw others do with good results was practice interviewing all the time. You've got to be creative about the search. One guy cold called/e-mailed every recent alumnus who worked at firms he wanted to work at and, at our internship, cold called/set up one-on-one meetings with senior people at our firm to learn how they got to where they were. He now works at Boston Consulting Group.

I'll pass along an article I read that made a big impression on me: the Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing. "You're looking for people who are: 1. Smart, and 2. Get things done." Your GPA suggests you might be #1. Go prove you're #2. Report back to us when you get the job.