[pixelready]

In addition to a class marker, high GPA is also a marker of obedience and conformity, both highly prized attributes when market consolidation relaxes competitive pressure. You don’t need innovative rebel types being all critical and making waves in your org when you can just chill and collect rent.

[gedy]

It could also be a signal of common sense and some work ethic.

[pixelready]

I don’t totally disagree, insofar as a very low GPA is probably a countersignal of common sense and work ethic. The problem you get is by converting these things from measures to targets, and then putting them on a permanent record.

Suddenly everyone is competing for limited slots, the minimum standard for hiring goes from high GPA to perfect GPA, any misstep in your learning process, any teacher who didn’t like you, any elective that may have enriched you personally but you weren’t particularly good add it, etc… gets distilled down into a numerical value (like a credit score) that bureaucrats treat as some sort of object truth. The ATS filters you out without you ever having had a shot, orgs optimize for low-risk tolerance individuals and organizations are starved of potential creative problem solvers and other types of change agents.