MENSA and NAGTY (high IQ)

Mensa is on his CV and it hasn't been viewed as "pretentious twaddle" by anyone.

Putting Mensa on your form will not harm your application. That is a fact. Thus, you may as well put it on.

To me, it shows that you are trying to increase your intellectual capacity, and that can never be a bad thing.

Are you aware that Mensa has special interest groups (SIGs) that are based on one subject and meet to discuss things like law, politics, psychology, history, economics, etc. that would be directly relevant to an application?

Of course it will, it removes you being able to use that sentance for something else. Adding anything unnecessary is bad.

There is the possibility that those tutors don't like the fact that there may be some eight year old with a better IQ than them. Something which, incidentally, happens very often. Insecurity/inferiority often leads to people being dismissive of things that they simply don't understand. There is much literature and film based around this concept. Oxford tutors only being human are as susceptible as anyone to this kind of behaviour.

All good writers can be succinct. It would be no problem to include that kind of thing, you know this.

There is the possibility that those tutors don't like the fact that there may be some eight year old with a better IQ than them. Something which, incidentally, happens very often. Insecurity/inferiority often leads to people being dismissive of things that they simply don't understand. There is much literature and film based around this concept. Oxford tutors only being human are as susceptible as anyone to this kind of behaviour.

I personally don't think the measure of one's IQ is totally dismissible, and having a D.Phil from Oxford doesn't make them any more capable of discerning that than you or I.

But in 45 lines, even a succinct writer can run out of space. I've seen PSs that read pretty much like a bullit-pointed list, there was so much on it they wanted to get across. Even being succinct you still have to cut out some things. Also, with Mensa, it's the top 2% of the country. Yet Oxford is generally a bit more selective than that - if you consider the top 40% go to university, less than 2% go to Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, UCL and Imperial combined (ie. almost anywhere that would have any claim to being as good as Oxbridge).

I can see how it would add to an application, but my fear is it wouldn't add much, and it has the possibility of coming across as arrogant in a way that other achievements don't. I've never understood why this is, but while people can talk about sporting achievements and grades and such, mention your IQ and people immediately think it's arrogance.
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Like PW said, it's one sentence, it can surely be fit into a PS. I can't believe people are even claiming that somehow a capable student predicted 3-4 As at A-Level would magically not get an interview solely because of mentioning membership in a high IQ society.

I can see how it would add to an application, but my fear is it wouldn't add much, and it has the possibility of coming across as arrogant in a way that other achievements don't. I've never understood why this is, but while people can talk about sporting achievements and grades and such, mention your IQ and people immediately think it's arrogance.

Most of them had IQs of 160+. That high, at the ages of 4-9. Potentially, they could wipe the floor with a fair percentage of Oxbridge students who, while the majority are clever, most are there through sheer hard work, and they have their educational backgrounds to thank for honing their statistically lower intelligence than some bright, poor children. The same no doubt applies when you compare those children to Oxford tutors. The only difference is age. They can't help the fact they were born in the year 2000.

So is Oxbridge admission based on academic potential, or "arrogance?"

Like PW said, it's one sentence, it can surely be fit into a PS. I can't believe people are even claiming that somehow a capable student predicted 3-4 As at A-Level would magically not get an interview solely because of mentioning membership in a high IQ society.

Slightly off topic to say this, perhaps, but I was fascinated by a few of those kids. One lad, Michael (?) and his Oxford-English-Don mother were hilarious - I hope he continues to develop into a very astute young man! Worrying that he's probably already read more than I ever will, but never mind...

I saw a programme about child geniuses on Channel 4 not too long ago. Most of them had IQs of 160+. That high, at the ages of 4-9. Potentially, they could wipe the floor with a fair percentage of Oxbridge students who, while the majority are clever, most are there through sheer hard work, and have their educational backgrounds to thank for honing their statistically lower intelligence than some bright, poor children. The same no doubt applies when you compare those children to Oxford tutors. The only difference is age. They can't help the fact they were born in the year 2000.

Anyway, I digress. I wanted to ask you, if you had an IQ of 160+, would you not want it to be seen by the world? It's hardly arrogance. NO more arrogant than some things I have seen on many legal CVs for example. Some of which you can see if you go to any of the top chambers' websites. Having a high IQ is hardly a fault, or a problem. I personally would never show my full intellectual hand, I'd rather let it speak for itself, thus, wouldn't put anything about IQ (I'd simply put "member of Mensa 19xx - present"), however some people do want to put stuff like this, and I for one, don't see a problem with it.

Incidentally, it might please some of those Oxford tutors to know that, many of these people with high IQs, often have very deep rooted behavioural problems. And thus, the value of having a high IQ so young seems to have been questioned. However, hostility towards the super-bright reminds me of the same hostility Oxford students receive in mainstream society when people find out they're going to Oxford. Something which I have seen mentioned on TSR many a time.

Normals naysaying Oxonians

Oxonian tutors naysaying High IQers

See my point?

I know this is nitpicking, but I think it was 130+ (there was one lad with 154 or something). Might not make a huge difference, in that it's only a number

People have already summarised, but here we go again: Membership of the Gifted & Talented Squad, or MENSA, is not really very interesting. But *doing* stuff with them might be of significant value.

I have known plenty of professors and a few Oxford tutors in my time at university. I am confident that most academics would consider being active in an organization like Mensa to be a signal for potential achievement.

However education does have a well-known (and well documented, even econometrically) bias towards family background, whereas IQ has far less of one, hence the claim it can test something more inate about ability.