What I said shouldn’t really be taken as an advice.
If you think that getting good scores will open doors for you, and you are in need of those, then, by all means, work hard to get good scores.
What many people like me do not realize is that learning something properly is among the material luxuries. You can only afford to do this if you do not have socio-economic disadvantages (like most people need jobs straight out of college- mostly for the money, but social norm is also a factor).
I am a person of simpler needs and I do not care about socio-economic norms. You might not be like me.
So, sticking to social design might achieve you benefits.
This nails it, and is something that took me some time to identify in myself. I was first in my family to finish college (and first to consider grad school, let alone go), my grandparents were refugees, and for most of my life my family was lower middle class. I went to school on scholarships and lots of loans, and that weight (plus the financial stresses we went through when I was growing up) led me to focus a lot on grades and 'playing the game' to the detriment of fully learning the material, exploring the material when my curiosity pushed me, and taking risks.
As I've understood that part of myself, I've had to regularly and actively push myself out of my comfort zones (studied neuroscience in grad school, then became a software engineer and have worked at startups for the majority of my career, founded a couple of tiny ones that went nowhere with some friends too) and still need to as a mid-30s adult today. It's much easier now with a steady income, but seeing my friends who had more stable homes take risks that I'd never be able to stomach or recover from really imprinted how important financial stability is to a child growing up.
Hopefully despite all this, I can raise my own kid in a stable environment that allows them to learn and grow without worrying about their life being completely ruined if they don't make perfect grades or don't follow obvious well-trod paths in life.
If you think that getting good scores will open doors for you, and you are in need of those, then, by all means, work hard to get good scores.
What many people like me do not realize is that learning something properly is among the material luxuries. You can only afford to do this if you do not have socio-economic disadvantages (like most people need jobs straight out of college- mostly for the money, but social norm is also a factor).
I am a person of simpler needs and I do not care about socio-economic norms. You might not be like me.
So, sticking to social design might achieve you benefits.