On hands-on versus math, how do you approach finding the magic balance?

For context: Let's agree that MIT and Olin are both great engineering schools. One former coworker of mine is a senior Mech E who graduated from MIT, who once said something along the lines: "I've never hired an MIT grad who could not do the math, but sometimes they needed to learn good bench skills on the job. I've never hired an Olin grad who didn't hit the ground running in the lab on day 1, but sometimes they hit resistance with the math." So even with four years and a demanding pace, it is still hard to do both well. What grounds your thinking on this topic?