One of the most effective ways to make new friends is from my perspective joining various activity groups. The activity of that group (fishing, knitting, personal development, philosophy study, whatever) gives you a starting point and a reason to interact with those people. Form there, if things go well, you can escalate interactions and start doing other stuff with some of these people: grab lunch, go for coffee, throw a party etc.
One you build a small social circle, you can use it to web your way to meeting other people. I find it amusing that your interactions with people in class distract you from your schoolwork. It tells me you may want to learn to set boundaries more clearly. Or maybe I didn't get this point correctly. Maybe you could give us some details on how this happens exactly.
