Well, I think we have a near universal consensus here. I believe that most people who are open to it can definitely understand, practice, and study the Tarot regardless of their educational attainments.
If I may tho, I will just try to provide a certain perspective on what your friend said. I think that maybe your friend is just putting a premium in her way of studying the Tarot. A few people like exploring the esoteric, historic, mythic, psychological etc aspects of the Tarot, and I guess she is one of those. Some Tarot tomes are packed with dense arcana, references to these deities and those goddesses and that Eastern mythological hero, or to various Jungian concepts or philosophical beliefs, or some obscure historical footnotes, etc that most people without a classical education might be hard put to follow without cross-referencing many books or resources. It might require a certain intellectual bent, or at least a strong natural curiosity and a deep willingness to explore cavernous and sometimes abstract concepts in order to compensate for any knowledge one might lack, in order to fully savor the banquet of erudite Tarot wisdom that is open to anyone, really, who wants to embark on such an exciting intellectual journey.
And to be honest, I'm one of those people. I love reading and learning new things and this bookish, scholarly approach satisfies me to the core like few things can. But what your friend didn't acknowledge is that there are many other equally valid paths to acquire enlightenment with the Tarot. Some others prefer an intuitive versus a scholastic approach to the Tarot, prefering to meditate on the images, to come to a true, deep understanding of what the various symbols mean to them, to put upon these pictures the full brunt of all their experiences and hopes and therefore inspire a powerful rapport with the cards themselves. Who is to say that this is not just as effective a path? There are many great Tarot readers who learned their craft from the collective wisdom of generations of their ancestors, and who did not need to open any book to prove themselves. There are many purely intuitive readers who give very accurate readings too.
What your friend said was rather snobbish really, and a tad uninformed. So I guess the thing is, pursue the approach that appeals to you best. It's a spectrum anyway - most straddle a middle ground tho they do lean a certain way. Do as thou wilt.