Programs differ. I'm a CS grad student (PhD) and it seems like most people don't even bother registering at all until a month before class or so. No one cares a

Programs differ. I'm a CS grad student (PhD) and it seems like most people don't even bother registering at all until a month before class or so. No one cares about class all that much and for most courses getting an A or a B (anything else is failing) is the expected course of action, though that isn't to say the coursework is easy. You effectively couldn't graduate with less than a 3.5 anyway, though again, no one cares about GPA. If you elect to do a MS, the comp exams are another matter. For the PhD, it's all research, research, research. For that same reason, some people try to take classes that are reportedly less work or where active research work can count toward a class project because otherwise, it takes too much away from research time. It's a very different experience for me than undergraduate because of the low regard for class work (though doing poorly will invite mockery).