If you are a recent graduate and all you have is your academic highlights, by all means embellish away. Unless your GPA is over 3.5, leave it off. However, once you start your career, your professional accomplishments become most important. Feel free to keep professional affiliations and community contributions under a separate heading, as long as they are relevant to your career.

Education section is important for recent grads/those early in career w/out a lot of experience. Include course work related to targeted jobs to get those keywords into your resume. Any activities that are relevant to your desired job should be included and bonus if you held a leadership role. If you’ve held a job for a few years, then education drops down and listing school/degree is sufficient.

The farther you are away from graduation, the less the details of your education matter. If you are a new graduate, mention it all to boost your value and credibility. If you graduated more than five years ago, drop the GPA and course list, and focus instead on new trainings, certifications, and accomplishments since graduation.

📌It all depends on the resume; a recent graduate might need to show more about their education, activities, and GPA as they don’t yet have other experience. On the other hand, this information can be less relevant for someone who graduated 20 years ago. So it’s all about being current and relevant to your current career target.