Smart Enough to Join Mensa, Not Smart Enough Not to Join Mensa

I searched online about this issue and found these posts. They are very helpful. Thank you to everyone. I, too, am high IQ but never applied to MENSA for a lot of reasons. At first for fear of not getting in, which–in retrospect–was stupid. A) it was likely and B) who cares?? I had tremendous social problems as a kid that were not so much from being high IQ, but believe me, being that way did NOT help.

Now I have a daughter who falls in this category. She is a lot better socialized and well-rounded, and very happy.

When I see what parents go through in terms of the curation, supplementation and investment in preparing their kids’ “CV” for college, I am a bit terrorized! It wasn’t near so complicated when I applied to school.

So I asked the psychologist who originally assessed her if there is some benefit for her college app. Because, frankly, that is the only reason that I would do it at this point. He said that, in all his years of his work, he never heard MENSA discussed in terms of college apps. So we decided not to pursue it.

With high IQ kids, and girls especially, I agree with what the juggler parent said–they need to be able to endure adversity and failure, ano not to be afraid to try new things. Also, I tell my daughter all the time… there will always be someone smarter than you, and someone not as smart. What matters is grit, the ability to persevere and to be compassionate to others. We talk about her intelelctual ability as being something not to squander and to work as hard as she can so that she can always trust her own ability to get through life.

But the point of this pot is that it took a lot of reflection and time to get to this point. Being high IQ has its pluses and its minuses, like any other attribute, and there are not enough guideposts for kids like this to know how to navigate.

And the final point is that the college app process is farking crazy. Thanks again, everyone.

If you’re so smart, why did you write this article?

As a current member of American Mensa, I can tell immediately that the person who wrote the article doesn’t know why Mensans really join a club. His two reasons why people would join Mensa miss the mark by far. Perhaps he is trying to be humorous. And some of the comments definitely are humorous. And perhaps none of the above persons have ever belonged to any organizatins themselves and therefore can’t imagine why others would do so? None of you have belonged to any school, arts, sports, social, job-related organizations? Ever?

We join Mensa for various reasons. 1. Social compatability 2. Lack of other social outlets 3. Communication compatabiity. 4. New experiences. 5. To challenge ourselves. 6. And, yes, bragging rights. Those are a few that come immediately to mind. So, okay, let’s talk about some of them, eh?

The social and communication compatability issue is real. Think about people on the low end of the bell curve, perhaps in the lower 2% of the population mentally. What do you feel? What are you thinking? People on the high end of the bell curve frequently have as much difficulty in socializing and communicating with the masses of people in the center as the people in the center would have in dealing with those on the low end of that scale. Besides, there are many people above the average who are not in Mensa. Mensa just accounts for the really odd people in the upper 2% whom many of you might dismiss as weirdos anyway. So why do you care if we have our own club? Is belonging to a group of unpopular nerds your goal in life?

What about bragging of our high IQ? I’ve never heard anyone do that in Mensa over the course of almost twenty years in that organization. We don’t see ourselves as better than other people–only different. Do Mensans use their membership to promote themselves in the world at large? Yes, some do. Does it help? Rarely. People get the notion that we’re bragging about our IQ for some strange reason. Most folks down’t take well to that and we’re bright enough to get the picture, eventually.

Is there a place in Mensa for stupidity? For lack of knowledge? For inappropriate behavior? Yes, yes, yes. And more. As human beings we are subject to the same (or more) problems as others. All IQ does is say that we think in a way that is different from most other people and which sets us apart most frequently in social and communication areas. We call our stupid mistakes “Densan.” So now you know. We have only the knowledge that we have learned in school, on the job, or taught ourselves by reading–same as everyone else. We have a lot of learning disorders, in fact, which means many Mensans have glaring holes in their education.

And finally, why aren’t all Mensans successful, rich and famous? Why should they be? Only people without imagination think that the pinacle of life is struggling for a lifetime in a corporate or governmental structure. In my experience, many Mensans prefer to go where the money is, and if that means plumbing, they become plumbers. Many others prefer a marginal existence where happiness (whatever that means to them) is their goal. And others just can’t seem to focus on one thing for sufficient time. They are interested in almost everything and refuse to limit themselves to one area of life. So crucify us, why don’t you? Hahahahahahha…..

“If your so smart, then why the hell do you have to shove it in people’s faces, you’d know you were smart, and that it’d be a bad idea in life. A.) because they’re probably either your boss, your co-workers, or your friends who will all leave you, or B.) because you’re just ASKING to get beaten up. Most likely, though, Mensa is just like picking out of a hat; you can break it if you go and tell all the idiots of the world to do it at one test time, and that’s probably how some got in. Also, what snobs decided to rank the world in a quiz that deals with friggin’ patterns and stuff?”