Does anyone else feel there isn't enough time in college to really grasp everything you want to?

I just don't get it. I am a biochemistry/chemistry major, but I don't want to be a doctor, dentist, although I did want to be a pharmacist. But honestly, I find the whole facet of science to be so interesting, but when I go to school I just lose my interest and motivation. I feel people are more focused on their A, or what someone else got in their class on a lab report or quiz; "what did you get on your test?". When I hear this all I can think is, why are we talking about grades and not about potential mechanisms of cancer. Or why arent we discussing other possibilities of what we have just learned in class? I feel nothing is set in stone in science, but everyone is so preoccupied with things that don't matter. It doesn't make sense to me as I get older and continue to refuse to join or be interested in such matters I find mundane like your 4.0. I'm stubborn I know, but I like to know everything firmly so that I can challenge the arguments or findings that I read about daily in textbooks. But I just don't think people understand me and its frustrating to feel like i'm the weird one because understand the concepts are more important to me than merely memorizing them. I am losing my respect for school in general and people in college. But i'm not totally closed off...I was a freshman once, and also, getting the grade is ultimately what some people are satisfied with. It doesn't rank our understanding of the knowledge though, and I hesitate to say that all it ranks is how much you want whatever it is you want in the end. But what you want in the end isn't always to learn the material for the sake of learning, but for the motive of making more money. This (the latter) makes me ask then, if money is all you seek, then the very definition of school, education, and knowledge has no definition at all and all it is is a type of orientaion or training period of four or more years....interest in pure knowledge, I believe, has side effects; character, mental, emotional, AND, in turn, financial growth, becoming a more open person to other cultures, people, and places...etc. but it just seems all so superficial. The most real people I feel I know are the ones that don't attend school, although they are missing out on a life changing experience. It's not for everyone though. I am an odd person, I already know and I ramble....blahhh, venting.