Even quantitative degrees just require patience and perseverance - it might be intimidating to be surrounded by people much better at math/physics/cs than you, but if you put in the time and effort, getting a degree in one of these subjects is very doable. It's a matter of effort rather than being smart.
I definitely agree. On the other hand, I do think that someone who has walked through the fire and pounded their head against hard concepts for 4 years legitimately comes out smarter in some dimensions.
It's a sliding scale of one and the other. I was in the middle range of intelligence among the rest of the physics majors at my school, so had to work reasonably hard to get decent grades. Some of the brightest didn't have to work so hard. But in fact many of them did anyway, and were able to accomplish wonderful things because of that.
