Lab classes were the only opportunities to build things. But even then, the builds were not extensive, just a little breadboarding for basic building block circuits. If you wanted to do some real building, you did it via extracurricular activities, such as the
micromouse competitions, or by going above and beyond the standard lab projects. For example, for a lab project that where we simply wired a microprocessor to external memory and stored/read data there, I wrote a RAM tester/debugger in order to troubleshoot IC, breadboard, and wiring issues. The assembly code for the tester was an order of magnitude more extensive than that for the actual project.
My EE concentration was in computer hardware (i.e., low voltage digital), so I didn't see what the power engineers (i.e., high voltage/current analog, motors, etc.) were up to as far as lab activities.