[atamyrat]

But in Singapore, maybe in other Asian countries too, getting a good grade is not that hard, but it is very time consuming. For me personally it is a choice between high GPA or personal projects, achieving both is almost impossible.

[jchonphoenix]

Yea, you could be right. I'm just talking about American Universities because thats where my experience is.

[potatolicious]

And Canadian ones. Where I went to college, a 3.5 GPA for the average person was easily 80h a week of solid work, if not more.

Methinks your experience may be unique to your school.

[jchonphoenix]

I go to Carnegie Mellon. Its difficulty is comparable to MIT and Caltech, which I hear isn't a joke...

Although there most definitely exists those that would say all three are quite easy.

[Locke1689]

I go to Northwestern. We share a number of courses (some of the OS projects, Computer Systems, etc.). Definitely not easy.