But sitting in front of computers isn't what computer science is about, and some of those students might have aspirations to change the HCI status quo.

Software engineering and computer science seem to have two strict criteria to consider and neither of them is the same sort of continuous, analog suffering as wearing large shoes or practicing shooting a basketball. These criteria are

1) can you solve hard problems? 2) do you want to continue solving hard problems?

At least to me it seems that those two things take more effort and willpower than anything else in software. So I don't think challenging a person about whether they would love to sit in front a computer all day is the right approach.