What if I made it into MENSA?

Applying to College
1

<p>I read an article a while ago about the MENSA test. Mensa, for those who don't know, is basically a group of really smart people, you have to be in the top 2% anywhere in an IQ test. MENSA gives a test to anyone who wants to take it that is over 14, but you can only take the test once in your life. I am wondering, if I passed the test, would it be a cool unique thing on an app? No doubt a large percentage of Ivy Undergrads could get into it, but I don't think many have tried. Could membership help me on an app in any way? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>I don't really think so.....</p>

<p>Plus, you can study for those things.</p>

3

<p>You can't study. Not really, it is an IQ test.</p>

4

<p>No - it's what you do with a high IQ that counts.</p>

5

<p>You only have to score like a 1350 on the SAT, if you use that test to qualify, for it, I thought I saw on the MENSA website.</p>

6

<p>No, it wouldn't help you. Probably close to 100% of Ivy applicants could qualify for Mensa. Being a Mensa member would not impress Ivies. What they are interested in is what one does with one's intelligence, not what memberships one gets as a result of being very smart.</p>

<p>Mensa no longer uses PSAT and SAT scores as membership criteria. That's because the newer (eg after about 1990) versions of those tests no longer correlate with IQ. Anyone old enough to have taken an older version, though, can use the older version to qualify for Mensa.</p>

7

<p>They don't take the SAT. And well of course Northstar they want to see you do something with it, but come on, as something quirky to seperate yourself form other apps that look the same, it must have some value.</p>

8

<p>It would have no value. As I mentioned, virtually everyone who applies to an Ivy or similar school would qualify for Mensa. Most of the adcoms also probably qualify for admissions, as do, of course the faculty.</p>

<p>It is a meaningless distinction in such institutions. IMO listing it on one's application as a membership would simply indicate that one assumed that being fortunate enough to have a high IQ would open the doors wide for one even if one didn't do anything else, which is not true about Ivy admissions.</p>

<p>Years ago, out of curiosity, I joined Mensa. I had moved to a new state, and thought it would be a great way of meeting interesting people. To my surprise, the meetings that I attended had some of the dullest people I'd ever met. </p>

<p>The only thing that they had in common was pride in having a high IQ: not great conversational fodder IMO. The other thing that surprised me was how underemployed most of the members were. It seemed that many were folks who had dropped out of h.s or college because of boredom, and then had had to settle for low paying work that didn't require much intellect. Being in Mensa was their way of reminding themselves that they were bright even though their jobs caused other people to assume that they weren't very bright.</p>

9

<p>hmmm, interesting. I didn't really know much about them, just that they were all smart. My uncle is a member, but he never says anything about it. If they are all like you say, though, then there wouldn't be a purpose to joining. So then you think it might actually be a negative then?</p>

10

<p>Mensa is one of those organizations whose sole purpose is to decide who can join the organization. It has no other real function. I doubt that belonging to something as useless as that would impress the adcoms.</p>

11

<p>"They don't take the SAT."</p>

<p>Yeah they do, as long as your score in the 98%tile, or higher.</p>

12

<ul>
<li> As can be seen from the below info from the official Mensa site, Mensa will not take SAT scores after Jan. 31 1994 or PSAT scores after May 1993 because they do not correlate with IQ.</li>
</ul>

<p><a href="http://www.us.mensa.org/join_mensa/testscores.php3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.us.mensa.org/join_mensa/testscores.php3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Qualifying Test Scores</p>

<p>American Mensa accepts scores from approximately 200 different standardized intelligence tests*. Often potential members have taken acceptable tests at other times in their lives and may not realize that they already qualify for membership. While not a complete listing, applicants frequently ask about the following tests.
*</p>

<h2>Tests commonly administered by school districts </h2>

<h2>California Test of Cognitive Skills IQ 132</h2>

<h2>Differential Ability Scales (DAS) GCA 132</h2>

<h2>Otis-Lennon Tests IQ 132</h2>

<h2>Otis-Gamma Test IQ 131</h2>

<p>Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT)</p>

<h2>Individual and Multilevel Forms Ability Index Score of 130 or above</h2>

<h2>Stanford Binet IQ 132</h2>

<p>Stanford Binet 5 IQ 132</p>

<h2>College preparatory tests </h2>

<p>ACT Composite prior to 9/89 29</p>

<h2>effective 9/89 N/A</h2>

<h2>GMAT (Percentile rank of verbal + quantitative)** 95 </h2>

<p>GRE prior to 5/94 (math + verbal) 1250
scored from 5/94 to 9/01 (math + verbal + analytic) 1875</p>

<h2>effective 10/01 N/A</h2>

<h2>Henmon-Nelson 132</h2>

<p>LSAT*** prior to 1982 662
1982 through 5/91 39</p>

<h2>effective 6/91 163</h2>

<p>Miller Analogies Test (MAT) prior to 10/04 (raw score) 66</p>

<h2>scored after 10/04 (total group percentile score) 98</h2>

<p>PSAT (taken in junior year) prior to 5/93 180</p>

<h2>effective 5/93 N/A</h2>

<p>PSAT (taken in senior year) prior to 5/93 195</p>

<h2>effective 5/93 N/A</h2>

<p>SAT or CEEB scored prior to 9/30/74 1300
scored from 9/30/74 through 1/31/94 1250
scored after 1/31/94</p>

13

<p>My whole point is....it doesn't take much to get into MENSA...I mean look at the score for the PSAT...a 180. To some that is great, but as someone else said earlier, everyone applying to the Ivies can get into Mensa, pretty much, at least the serious ones.</p>

14

<p>I got into mensa as well, and its an organization purely for finding like-minded people, not for bragging rights. You should not abuse an opportunity like being in mensa by using it to make yourself seem special. If you make president of your local mensa chapter, list that.</p>

15

<p>"You should not abuse an opportunity like being in mensa by using it to make yourself seem special. "</p>

<p>The whole point of Mensa is to make yourself feel special and smart...and if you don't think so, then you shouldn't be in it!</p>

16

<p>"Mensa will not take SAT scores after Jan. 31 1994 or PSAT scores after May 1993 because they do not correlate with IQ."</p>

<p>I'm not sure where they're coming from here. First of all, the scores still show a significant measured correlation with "IQ". I put that in quotes, of course, because the idea of a single test that quantitatively measures "intelligence" is nothing short of absurd. Most "IQ tests", in fact, give results very similar to the SAT, despite whatever spin is put on their results.</p>

<p>And what happened to the SAT in 1993, anyway? Wasn't the main substantive change the elimination of antonym questions? How could eliminating questions that primarily test vocabulary (acquired knowledge, not intelligence) possibly hurt any correlation with this mythical "IQ"?</p>

<p>My rather cynical suspicion is that Mensa, an organization that exists mainly to boost the self-esteem of its members, was afraid that many people would see its SAT cutoff and think "ah, that's a joke". So, what's the solution? Ah, just eliminate the SAT cutoff, pretend that you go by other, "real" measures of intelligence, and everything will be great.</p>

<p>Of course, I've never had an IQ test, so I might just be a rambling deviant with low intelligence who could never get into Mensa.</p>

17

<p>Okay, sorry guys, that was kind of over-sarcastic with no clear direction. But it is an interesting point...</p>

<p>Northstarmom hit it right on the spot. This is an organization that serves primarily to comfort the insecurities of people with no distinctions of which to be proud... aside from high IQ, of course! It's ridiculous - even their website radiates insecurity.</p>