The only thing that matters in college is your GPA. Other goals, like developing soft-skills, making friends, getting sleep, or (gag)learning, are completely and utterly irrelevant and are nothing but mere distractions to the ultimate goal: a 4.0. Any suggestion otherwise is delusional folly. 

The world is a complex place, so naturally, the human mind begs for heuristics to simplify it. What could be simpler than the idea that “big number good?” This heuristic governs the modern world. You buy the product that has better reviews. You watch the show that has won more awards. The entire selling point of the city of Dubai is that they have the tallest building. Who cares if Dubai built it with slave labor? The building is taller, the number is bigger, so the city is successful.

Obviously, this heuristic applies to GPA as well. Your GPA is the first thing on your resume. It serves as the summary of your collegiate experience and answers the most fundamental question: are you a worthwhile person? What else are they going to look at? The average tech job gets anywhere from 200 to 1000 applicants. Some internships get over 20 thousand applicants. How do you think they’re going to choose who to hire? Even the costs of running those applications through an AI is far too high, let alone the cost of actually individually sifting through each application to determine who “has the relevant skills” or “will be a good fit with the team.” They’re just going to go with the biggest number.

After college, who cares if you made lifetime friends who care for and support you? Who cares if you improved your soft-skills like critical thinking, personability, teamwork, and grit? Does it really matter if you exposed yourself to many different people from all walks of life and expanded your horizons? Is it honestly consequential that you experienced love and loss for the first time and grew as a person?

None of those things can fit on a resume. Try putting a meaningful number on “personal growth,” it just doesn’t work. The only quantifiable undisputed fact that you can take out of college is your GPA. It’s a concrete reality that you can show as proof of your capabilities. To that end, it doesn’t matter if your physical health, mental health, or actual knowledge suffers. Everything else is transitory. The GPA stays with you for life.

Image Credits: Asad Mann