You were getting a degree in something requiring real work, a hard science or engineering I’m guessing from the “lab reports” in your post. These guys wouldn’t know a lab report if it bit them on the butt.
You have plenty of free time if you’re majoring in gender studies, social “science” or the like.
You’re correct; I was going for engineering and in work/study, so if I wasn’t in class, I was working.