It depends where you study and what courses you take / who teaches you. Sometimes the professor will drive a ferocious pace of instruction and assessment and you will simply not be able to meaningfully keep up unless you sacrifice the depth of your learning in exchange for getting everything done. I have been in that position and watched my grades tank. Then, a year later, I watched my peers struggle with follow-up material that seemed to make a lot more sense to me.

> You can do both!

Not if you have other interests!

I am a very cultural person (reading books, writing, playing music, etc.). I volunteer after natural disasters, too. And I also value interpersonal relationships with people I care about.

It felt bad in HS, but in college, I was mature enough to simply not care. (I also gained enough skills in the meantime to be certain that I won't ever starve.)

I understood it as that learning math is easy and fun in high school but becomes hard and boring work at university level.