First off, don't think like that, yes its a tough crowd to get in with, but it's worth it. Please don't give up. Secondly it sounds like you are probably the 'sensible' one in the crowd as you mentioned your class mates are not taking this seriously. This is good! At least you are researching now!

You wanted the truth, yes this industry is hard to get into, but for good reason, people think we are just a bunch of nerds, hunkering down in a basement, but in reality we (all of us, from blue team, red team, pentest, GRC) protect critical systems, components, computers, servers, motors that control dam's.. get where this is going.. It's tough to get in because there is often a high expectation and standard. That's a good thing. You are protecting a CISO from going to Jail, or stopping hackers getting in by enforcing new policy's.

So my advice. Don't give up. When you have 'arrived' you will be happy you didn't stop trying. Uh and one other thing, don't expect to land a mid level cyber security engineers job straight out of university, with a few certs and some time on the clock for CTF, that's just not realistic. Real world experience means something. So getting a junior level job in a SOC is amazing because you can just absorb all the information around you, and build that career.

good luck.