Two of those phrases, which have been reading for quite a while and never understood the meaning are "a well rounded person" and "building character".
Care to explain this to me?
Building character is often used to justify grueling tedious work, regardless of its merits/value. Done right, building character would consist of valuable activities that improved upon an important skill or helped people. That is, one builds character by learning and by overcoming obstacles on the way.
These are basically two phrases that could be used to signify positive attributes/activities, but are usually used in stupid ways.
What they are meant to mean is that you developed in a wide range of areas, such as academics skills and social skills.
An example of someone not complying to this is the derogatory stereotype such as someone who just knows how to code, and has no social skills.
But really ignore it.