I am having a similar issue. When I get to my school or other wifi-enabled locations, my laptop refuses to recognize any wireless signals. I checked and everything is up-to-date, but regardless of troubleshooting and manually turning off and on the wireless adapter, I cannot connect! I am also a college student, so this, again, is a huge issue!
Now, having said that, the way that I have been able to pseudo-solve the problem has been by turning the laptop completely off and restarting it OR by using the restart feature. I believe this is some sort of programming issue. Obviously, the hardware does work, but sometimes it just doesn't activate upon starting up the laptop.
Note: The BlueTooth software works regardless of the wireless adapter, so there doesn't seem to be an issue there.
Note: My wireless adapter reads as: Broadcom 802.11ac Network Adapter
What can permanently fix this issue?