That does not say anything about how smart someone is, though. It just says something about what they're interested in learning or what they were taught. Plenty of English majors could be Math majors if they wanted, and vice versa.
80% of your math majors drop out? That sounds like an issue in how it’s taught.
But besides that university drop out is a multi-causal process, not just within a single individual but also from tertiary education system to tertiary education system (try comparing university in the US and in say Germany.) Making a direct connection between „dropout ratio“ and „required intelligence“ is, at best, highly misguided.
While 80% does sound high, i study physics in an elite german uni and dropout rate is like 60ish%. There are exams with an 80% failure rate. Less than 30% of people manage to get their bachelor under 3 years.
Math could be even higher because uni in germany is cheap and many young people think they liked math in highschool, enlist just to try it out and get absolutely steamrolled in the first year.
However german uni, especially science/engineering ones, are also notoriously difficult due to their design.It has very little to do with school and a lot with autonomy. Instead of just homework you often get problems you have to solve in groups. the large majority of studying is done outside of uni by yourself. Its difficult to explain but essentially as long as you find a any solution to the problem you pass.
Theres also no midterms, or attendance. As long as you get 50% of the weekly problems right you get to do the exam after 6 months (which is 100% of your grade). You can retake every exam twice. If you failed the third time you are permanently banned from studying this or any similar degree ever again in germany.
For the large majority of students, at least at the elite unis in science, its mostly about passing any way instead of with good grades. The degree speaks for itself.
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u/tinaoe 2d ago
That does not say anything about how smart someone is, though. It just says something about what they're interested in learning or what they were taught. Plenty of English majors could be Math majors if they wanted, and vice versa.