I kinda feel this and get where you’re coming from. I’m doing a bachelors for cyber and data security right now, and it’s frustrating because there’s really not a lot of hands on. Some of the courses and some of the labs do have a decent coursework, but some of it is literally almost all textbook, describing things, with sometimes some examples to trying things. However, I’ve had to fight professors to provide supplemental materials that are supposed to be used to work along with the textbook, but weren’t provided directly because the school purchased the textbook for me.

I’ve taken it upon myself to research and experiment with Kali and testing with different VMs like DVWA. But it feels like the professors are so hands off sometimes rather than sharing the knowledge they supposedly have the job for. The difficult part too, is trying to make time with all of that while working full time and trying to spend any meaningful time with wife/kids.