Simple advice: Obey your teachers so that you can just pass the fucking major. Having to repeat courses because you and a teacher butted heads is a waste of your time/money and could be fixed with sucking it up and brown nosing.

About the "story" part. I understand where your teacher is coming from. We learned that having a "story" isn't just fluff, it makes the concept of your design interesting. For example: 1. "I designed these markers for colorblind children to use because I know that colorblind students and their teachers can struggle in class". 2. "My boyfriend is colorblind and I remember him telling me about his teacher slapping him on the wrist for coloring a cattail all brown instead of brown and green. It was borderline traumatizing for him. This inspired me to design a set of markers for colorblind children."

Saying number 2 instead of number 1 when I presented my product made all the difference in the world. It captures your audience and makes them emotionally invested. It's like any presentation for anything. You want to have your audience's attention.

For all of your other issues: you need to take care of yourself if your curriculum isn't. Learn what's going on in the field. Learn what employers want from a junior designer. Learn what the best of the best are doing in terms of CAD, portfolio design, ANYTHING. My school's teachers didn't prepare us for the actual world of industrial design. They were stuck in the 70s and 80s. We all had to take it upon ourselves to go to conferences and see what the competition was. Never stop teaching yourself.

Design stuff that will benefit your portfolio. That's the best advice I can give you. It may be twice as much work, but you need to be doing side projects that you can actually use.