Is university a good measure of intelligence?

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I have a measured IQ of 160. I have AS and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia makes university hard for me; I can't focus well in lectures because of hearing voices/feeling paranoia about the other people in the room. My medication gives me undesireable side-effects which doesn't help either. I have a full-time support worker at university funded by the government (I live in London and go to uni in London - I have Disabled Students' Allowance so I get free things provided to me for my disability ie computer software and a full-time support worker as well as an Asperger's mentor).

Anyway.

I am doing "average" in university because the first year is too broad for me. I'm studying pharmacology and the first year has hardly any pharmacology in it. I got 93% and above in all my A-levels at school, but now I am struggling as I took two years out of education after I left school due to a series of severe relapses, one of which got me sectioned.

I am finding it very hard to recover myself and I was sectioned again last December by the police, and then by a psychiatrist. This was during university and I missed three weeks of lectures.

However I can read a textbook of my special interest which is psychopharmacology (I will be studying this module next year), and I can absorb facts extremely well. I go on the internet and read medical/pharmacology articles and I just remember so much. I recently had an obsession about endocrinology and my Dad said I might as well be a doctor.

My question is (after this long post) - is university really a measure of intelligence? My friend doesn't think so but I am not so sure.

(My mathematical subtest IQ is 180 and my mental arithmetic is still highly intact despite not having done any intensive mathematics since mid-last year)

Given the nature of the UK education system at this moment in time. I would say no, it is not an indication of intelligence as such but more of a sign that you have the means to be socially mobile as in able to potentially ascend the ranks of socities class structure.

The right learning environment can bring out the best in human potential. But those are not dependent on whether the building has red bricks or is an ox-bridge university. It is dependent on the establishments academia who as a collective will determine the quality and beneficial aspects of your education.

I think the education system of the UK has lost perspective on what it is providing its students with and it needs to have a serious reform and redress of its eronous ways that are leading university education to become poor value for money and increasingly swinging back towards its former status as a privelage for the elite.

Education doesn't measure intelligence as much as it does submissiveness, because you have to be submissive to do all this meaningless work before you submit to employment

Thank you for these useful posts.

I am studying in UCL (as my signature describes) and the structure there is.....lacking. Most of the time I haven't much idea what exactly will be in the test that I am revising for.

Libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free.

What price now for a shallow peice of dignity?

Education isn't a measure of intelligence at all, neither are IQ tests. How do you even define intelligence? Is Bill Gates intelligent? He dropped out.

Some of the stupidest people I've met have been my classmates at university, so no I would say definitely not. I don't even think good grades are really a good measure of intelligence, as it's as much about pleasing the teacher and doing what you're told as it is learning the material and having intelligence. Honestly I think university drives a lot of really smart people crazy because of this.

I dropped out

No it's not. It work for most intelligent peoples but some just can't get through it. With your IQ you better learn by yourself anyway, it won't be long before you get way beyond that university students.

SteelMaiden, I find you very intelligent and I always look forward to reading your posts.
In my opinion getting a degree is not a guarantee that you are intelligent. I have seen in universities people so stupid that I do wonder whether they can walk and talk at the same time. Which is sad really.
I got a straight-A university diploma without any work basically because I have always had a high capacity for processing information so I didn't need to attend lectures. All I needed was some studying before the actual exam took place. Again, I find this sad, because getting an degree means practically nothing.

Universities seem to work best for people who learn socially. I don't learn socially at all. Like some of you said, I learn much more reading what I want when I want than trying to complete assigned tasks and listening to lectures and participating in discussions on the same material.

I just recently realized that the only reason I did well before I got to college (university) was that I learned stuff on my own by reading or thinking to myself and then just demonstrated the knowledge in class when called upon. I don't think I ever actually learned "in the classroom" except for maybe in a a few rare highly structured classes (usually language classes involving extremely inflexible material like grammar and vocabulary) cause I was too busy concentrating on the other people in the room and the atmosphere of the room, and thinking about the way the teacher had chosen to communicate the material rather than thinking about the actual material.

I wish i had a bottle. Right here in my dirty face. To wear the scars. To show from where i came.

College/University is an awful measure of intelligence. My best friend who's extremely intelligent dropped out at the beginning of our sophomore year. I myself maintain a 'B' average, but then again, I don't even try very hard. While on the other hand, a few weeks ago in a statistics-based class lab of mine, some guy sitting next to me asked, "What equation do we regress for #2?"

You want to know what question #2 said?

It LITERALLY said: "Regress the following equation..." followed by the equation.

I also remember the first week of my freshman year in Chinese class, I had the stupidest, most insane classmate ever. Here was a conversation between him and the professor during class time:
Stupid guy: What does 'wo' mean?
Prof: It means 'I' or 'me'.
Stupid guy: What does 'ni' mean?
Prof: It means 'you'.
Stupid guy: What does that mean?

The only thing I wondered at that point was how this guy even remembered to breathe ever few seconds. At the end of the week, he angrily stormed out of class (much to the happiness of me and the others), and thankfully never came back.

I got proof that all you need to get into college is money... and a pulse... during my first week. That should've raised red flags for me right there.

Thank you all for your helpful replies.

I am relieved to read your posts.

I don't process information verbally at all. I learn by reading textbooks or material on the internet. I learn next to nothing in lectures, especially as my hallucinations tend to kick in at that time due to the distress of being in a lecture hall with 200-300 people.

My support worker is very helpful and to be honest she is the only reason I haven't dropped out of university.

In lectures I notice, with amusement, many students sleeping, texting or playing games on their phones during lectures, especially if it is a 9am lecture.

I took a pharmacology test last term and I got an OK mark (but not an amazing mark) because I was never told what to study. They just said "you have a test". A test on what? I e-mailed the lecturer and he was highly unhelpful. I struggle in university at times because of the lack of structure. I cold do very well if I knew what to study! I have nothing wrong with my memory. In fact I can memorise whole paragraphs or even pages with my powerful rote memory. I can also understand concepts too, but they take me slightly longer depending on the concept. However what amused me is that a few people got -20% , -10% and -4% (yes, minus percentages are possible).

I miss the structure of school.

That's what it's all about, in a nutshell.

I completely agree with both of you. The carer at my supported accommodation said that when he was at university, he found learning with his friends really helped. I know of several other people who have said the same thing. I learnt more in the two years that I had to take out of education than I think I could learn in a university setting in two years.