<p>Should I post on my applications that I'm a member of Mensa? ...Or would this come across as pretentious. I know that if there's one time to boast, it's on college applications... But I still do not like coming across as conceited.</p>
<p>There isn't anything that special about Mensa and I wouldn't suggest mentioning it unless you accomplished something related to your membership.</p>
<p>Colleges are looking for initiative, passion and leadership -- and if an activity or EC doesn't demonstrate one or more of these, you are wasting the space.</p>
<p>actually there are many applicants with mensa memberships. for example, my sister, my 4 cousins, and I have them. However, looking at what colleges 2 of my cousins got in, the membership does not play a role in admission process.</p>
<p>I don't think it would be impressive as colleges are interested in what you've accomplished with your IQ -- college board scores, gpa, leadership, courseork -- not how high your IQ is.</p>
<p>Also, at the top colleges, probably all students qualify for Mensa.</p>
<p>To my thinking, it doesn't add any information to the application. People can 'qualify' for Mensa on the basis of test scores, so being a member doesn't tell the admissions office anything that they couldn't have already figured out from your SAT or ACT (i.e. this applicant is smart). It doesn't make you any more distinctive than applicants with similarly high test scores who elected NOT to seek membership in Mensa.</p>
<p>In my experience, there are mixed reactions to affiliation with Mensa. Some people feel negative about it. Since it doesn't add anything to the college's knowledge of you, and you cannot predict how people will feel about it, I wouldn't rank it up there with the most important ECs to include on a list with limited space.</p>
<p>hoedown gives great advice about the negativity sometimes associated w/it. Perhaps pass on this since any potential boost you might receive (as others have stated) is minimal.</p>
<p>If you don't put it on your app they won't know about it, so it's not being pretentious.</p>
<p>Walking around campus saying you're in mensa would be pretentious, and I hope you don't do that</p>