Re: the edit I think the issue was that your original post could be interpreted to mean that GPA is determined primarily by the amount of adversity in one's pe

Re: the edit I think the issue was that your original post could be interpreted to mean that GPA is determined primarily by the amount of adversity in one's personal life and very little by academic ability. This is contrary to what I've observed: those with hardships still do fine academically, only a very small step below those with everything going for them, whereas those with genuinely bad GPAs typically aren't putting much effort into their coursework or are simply in the wrong major.