I’m an MS CS student at USC, and I need some advice from fellow MS CS students and alums regarding a dilemma I’m facing. I currently have a GPA in the 3.3 range and I’m confused about whether I should pick heavy learning and skill-boosting (hard courses) over GPA boosters (easy courses) or the other way around. Since I’ve completed only one semester at USC, the dilemma I am facing is that if I select heavy learning and skill-boosting courses, no doubt I’ll learn a lot and it’ll definitely help my resume. But on the other hand, I also have to consider that in a class of 800 people I am not the brightest, and being an international student on an F1 visa, I do need to have a great GPA so companies don’t reject me based on GPA alone. If my resume doesn’t go through ATS filters, there’s no point in applying and no point in having gained so many skills.

So, I just wanted to know everybody’s opinion on this, especially from those who are also pursuing an MS in CS. What do you all recommend one should do: go for learning and skills over GPA boosters, or the other way around? Also, it would be great if you could list three heavy learning/skill-gainer courses and three super easy courses (basically where it’s much easier to score a 4.0 GPA). It would be really great if you could share this with your MS CS friends as i am guessing most who have a similarly dilemma will also receive great amount of help from the opinions in the comment section, thank you!