As a counter point to this, anecdotally though it may be, I've never seen anyone come out of a Comp Sci program (and I've seen a lot now) who was ready to go as an engineer (sound understanding as you put it) unless they had significant practical experience through projects of their own or internships.

In general:

A priori knowledge only gets you to the starting line. Experience carries the rest. And you can only get that experience by doing yourself, not second hand.