there's a damn good reason some physicists are theoreticians. While Caltech had a physics laboratory requirement - for everyone, not just the physics majors -

there's a damn good reason some physicists are theoreticians. While Caltech had a physics laboratory requirement - for everyone, not just the physics majors - there was a way that one could be excused from it, typically as a result of the destruction of expensive equipment. I don't really know but would be unsurprised were Einstein one such, when he was an undergrad. It's not well known but it is well documented, that Einstein wrote his four historically-important papers in the simple hope of getting a modest raise in pay. Patent examiners with doctorates were paid more than examiners who didn't have PhD's, you see. He hoped one of the papers would be accepted as his dissertation. (E=mC^2 was derived from one of the first four.)