Education is the Key- but to what door?

        In December 2nd 2012, Suli Breaks posted a spoken word piece online about higher education. He speaks that society, teachers and our parents tell us: " Education is the Key". With education, we can become successful, we can make money and live a good life. But to what extent is institutional education helping us? Suli continues on to list a plethora of successful people who did not attend college or dropped out of college. These people did not need to have higher education, they were motivated and knew how to become successful without schooling. However, in this spoken word, he does not protest pursuing higher education, he warms us to be motivated and not absentmindedly go through college.
       I write this on the Friday at the end of finals. I spent about 100+ hours studying for just 1 Final, and around 10-15 for 2 Finals. Everyday of the weekend before dead week and during,  woke up everyday at 11am and studied in the same room until 2-3am. What would I do? I mindlessly stared at the same 100 page study guide over and over until I memorized that you use a Odds Ratio for a Case-Control Study but you can also use an Odds Ratio to calculate a measure of association for a cohort study, but that would be a disease Odds Ratio. When I took my exam, it was multiple choice and I would internally freak out knowing that regardless of how many hours I put into studying, only one choice, one bubble can be filled and would be correct. Maybe I am a genius at Epidemiology but due to the lack of sleep and the caffeine high, I misread one word and got the question wrong? On the exam score, this would show that I did not know that answer and my GPA would again drop.
     I admit that I do not have the best GPA and from my standpoint, it might just sound like I am complaining. Sometimes I even have told myself: "You know what? Maybe its how school is ran, maybe its just me. I should just shut the fuck up and  I just have to fucking deal with it". I wish I could say that I don't care out what grade I get and it does not matter. However, I feel like the reason why Berkeley is such a terrible place to learn is because of its competitive nature of its students. Sometimes I don't even know that I contribute to this system. Last summer in my Bio1B lab, a girl from another university approached me and introduced herself. I looked at her like is she was crazy. She told me that she went to another college and everything made sense. I wish Berkeley students would show their support for one another, but how can that happen? I do not know, but I wish I did.
CAUTION: I may have generalized about the general Berkeley student population. If you have different experiences, please enlighten me.www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyI