Academic performance has always been associated to the evaluation tests results, which are those corresponding to student's IQ, and leaving aside other personal characteristics. Among such characteristics, the importance of emotional intelligence is worth highlighting (management, facilitation, understanding and perception), dimensions associated to personality traits (emotional impulsiveness, respect for others, sociability, negotiating skills, openness to experience, self-confidence) and, of course, the meaning of life, since the creation of meaning is related to each person's individual development, in hand with other processes such as identity, relationships and life goals. The objective of this project is to study the role of these dimensions in the learning process and development of students, which may predict future performance. To do so, we have conducted an observational study with 217 psychology students at the Francisco de Vitoria University, which identifies the importance of each characteristic relative to academic performance. The results show that the aforementioned theoretical models are isolated, making it necessary to include other variables, such as the meaning of life and emotional intelligence to explain academic performance.