MENSA

[geK0]

What are the requirements for MENSA anyway? I had an IQ test a few years ago and scored 126 (After a major head injury however), is that MENSA worthy? : \

What does MENSA do, and why should I join it? I've Googled it, but I am not finding anything specific.....

edit: apparently you must by in the 98th percentile to join Mensa, I'm only in the 90th(according to the test I had several years ago).

MENSA seems a little pointless anyway...

 

[Silas13013]

I stopped taking MENSA seriously after one of my mates got in. This man was the stupidest asshole in the galaxy. He has accidentally lit himself on fire, swallowed dry ice (three times), got high off of smelling scented markers, glued a BB rifle to his hand, ate an entire paper mache globe (supporting balloon and all), arrested for public nudity, set off a small bomb in his hand because he forgot to throw it, drank an entire bottle of mint extract(much puking ensued), did the cinnamon challenge three times in a row to make sure his failure wasn't a fluke, used a staple gun to put staples in his arm, pierced his tongue with a nail and ate a light bulb. He very nearly failed out of school multiple times as well.

Anyway, one day a group of us decided to take the test for shits and giggles. The numbers were pretty standard, the "smartest" of us almost got in with a score of 130, but then we got the "dumb" ones score back. 142. We had taken bets before hand on who would get in. His bet was that he would be the only one. He made enough to buy several dozen packs of scented markers on the way home.

 

[The Abhorrent]

My guess is that people would be hostile towards MENSA members due to the implied arrogance it implies. Quite simply, people don't like to feel inferior and/or stupid compared to another person; saying you're a member of MENSA just gets the ball rolling, and it's difficult to get people to stop dwelling on the fact. The effect could be described as wounding their pride, in which case they'll do all they can to regain it; unsurprisingly, this manifests as hostility to whomever made them feel inferior in the first place (even if they did so unintentionally). This isn't exclusive to MENSA, but the correlation is already there in the minds of the general public.

That being said... what exactly is the point of joining MENSA?

No offense intended, but I don't really see the point of a high-IQ society; well, beyond inflating your own ego. If you're looking for a mental challenge, there are plenty of routes one could take; some are academic pursuits (obtaining post-graduate degress), others are very prestigious careers. For example, I'm trying to get going in structural engineering (getting my bachelor's degree after my exams are complete); and doing so will involve plenty of challenges over the next few years (including a master's degree, which is more of an expectation than official requirement). Compared to that, MENSA seems somewhat... irrelevant. At most, it seems to be smug & meaningless pride; there are plenty of other venues if you want to challenge yourself or learn new things, and they don't require you to be apart of a high-IQ society to join them. You just go out and start learning them; starting with an academic institution or even the local library is a good place to start.

Perhaps there is a reason why there's outward hostility towards members of MENSA, if their pride indeed rings hollow. Perhaps they could have some actual accomplishments and qualifications to go along with it, but at that point membership to MENSA would seem superflous or incidental. In both cases, it just seems meaningless; assuming I'm not missing or overlooking something.

---

And for a good giggle, here's a classic comedy sketch concerning "MENS"A:
Mike from Canmore applies to MENSA[/youtube]

 

[Ickorus]

MENSA seems like a bit of a circlejerk to me and I legitimately question the intelligence of people who would pay good money to join it, surely you could easily find other intellectuals in the local area simply by posting an ad online.

But what do I know, my mind is not advanced enough to grasp such complexities.

 

[Trivun]

I joined age six, it was big news at the time since I was the youngest member to join the UK Mensa then. Ended up in the paper and everything, we actually have the clippings hidden away somewhere along with my membership certificate framed and on the wall. Since then we've had people as young as three getting in, so I don't really care that much anyway. All I get for it is a magazine each month that's like a socil thing crossed with New Scientific (which is actually pretty interesting), and bragging rights that I hardly ever use. And it looks great on my CV too.

That being said, despite having a high IQ (135 when I was six, Ihaven't tested it anytime in the past few years though), it hasn't been a massive boon. Sure, I'm smart, but although my GCSEs were amazing I had average A-Level results (even though I did do five, and most people only do three or four), and I failed university (having to do resits now to get my degree), so there are loads of people out there who have done much better than me that probably have average IQs, or slightly above average, and have never even bothered with Mensa. My point being that IQ isn't everything, and being in Mensa doesn't make you any better than other people, it's simply a fairly impressive yet ultimately meaningless title, and nothing more.

 

[dyre]

Unless MENSA comes with a good networking program, I don't see why people would pay to join a group that accepts you solely for your IQ, not your achievements (indeed, they accept people who are way to young to have achievements). It just seems...juvenile. Like the threads that sometimes pop up where people can post their excellent IQs. I can just imagine the MENSA meetings...

Member 1: "Hey, so what do you do for a living?"
Member 2: "I'm a management consultant, how about you?"
1: "I pump gas at a BP station"
2: "Huh, what?"
1: "Turns out IQ isn't everything..."
Member 3: *shakes rattle and cries because his mom forgot to bring a milk bottle*

Also, if the cutoff is 130, shouldn't MENSA have millions upon millions of members? And probably earn more subscription revenue than most charities get donations? I hope they're doing something useful with that money.

 

[geK0]

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I've fallen for your avatar three times now!!! I keep attempting to squish that little bug, only to leave thumb prints on my screen!!

obviously I am not MENSA material!

 

[Iron Criterion]

Also, if the cutoff is 130, shouldn't MENSA have millions upon millions of members? And probably earn more subscription revenue than most charities get donations? I hope they're doing something useful with that money.

A high percentage of that number would come from this forum alone. /sarcasm.

 

[Eri]

Unless MENSA comes with a good networking program, I don't see why people would pay to join a group that accepts you solely for your IQ, not your achievements (indeed, they accept people who are way to young to have achievements). It just seems...juvenile. Like the threads that sometimes pop up where people can post their excellent IQs. I can just imagine the MENSA meetings...

Member 1: "Hey, so what do you do for a living?"
Member 2: "I'm a management consultant, how about you?"
1: "I pump gas at a BP station"
2: "Huh, what?"
1: "Turns out IQ isn't everything..."
Member 3: *shakes rattle and cries because his mom forgot to bring a milk bottle*

Also, if the cutoff is 130, shouldn't MENSA have millions upon millions of members? And probably earn more subscription revenue than most charities get donations? I hope they're doing something useful with that money.

Most tests 132 is the minimum to get in. I'm not sure if you meant to actually say cutoff. Also, no, there's only about 110,000 members, nowhere close to millions.

 

[dyre]

Unless MENSA comes with a good networking program, I don't see why people would pay to join a group that accepts you solely for your IQ, not your achievements (indeed, they accept people who are way to young to have achievements). It just seems...juvenile. Like the threads that sometimes pop up where people can post their excellent IQs. I can just imagine the MENSA meetings...

Member 1: "Hey, so what do you do for a living?"
Member 2: "I'm a management consultant, how about you?"
1: "I pump gas at a BP station"
2: "Huh, what?"
1: "Turns out IQ isn't everything..."
Member 3: *shakes rattle and cries because his mom forgot to bring a milk bottle*

Also, if the cutoff is 130, shouldn't MENSA have millions upon millions of members? And probably earn more subscription revenue than most charities get donations? I hope they're doing something useful with that money.

Most tests 132 is the minimum to get in. I'm not sure if you meant to actually say cutoff. Also, no, there's only about 110,000 members, nowhere close to millions.

I'm sure there's a spectacular difference between 130 and 132
Then again, I haven't taken an IQ test, so I wouldn't know.

Yeah, I figured they would only have around that many members (actually, I would've guessed around 50,000). I was just trying to highlight the amusing reality that having a MENSA-qualified IQ would make someone one of maybe 100 million people, most of which have not taken it upon themselves to join that organization.

OT: I wouldn't put it on your resume, since it's not really any more of an achievement than putting your IQ (which would look really stupid on a resume), but look up if you can use MENSA membership as a means to connect with other people who might offer you employment in the future (I mean, if they're the top 2% in terms of IQ, at least some of them should work for decent companies). If so, it might be worth it. If it's just an ego trip and an annual meeting, it's probably not worth it.