Sorry to crash your thread . . well not really
I think the people that commented that excellence is not solely a GPA issue are on the right track.
Sometimes we forget that some of he most successful people in the world didn't have the best GPA's in school. GPA is a singular measure of worth.
My Fraternity hands out awards differently. We have something called a scholarship leadership award that we give to students. GPA is just a part of the criteria used, and not even the largest part. The largest part is leadership rules in various organizations.
So it depends on your viewpoint. If you think that college is soley for getting good grades (an objective but limited measure of academic success) and that all our organizations are completely ancillary to that . . then GPA is indeed going to be your prime consideration.
But if you believe that the importance of college is the overall experience, which the classroom might be the smallest part of in many case, then the total person needs to be considered.
Thanks for listening to me Ramble.