You're right -- Mensa is one out of 50 people, so not exceedingly select. The one benefit of it over the more rigorously selective groups is that it is large enough that you may find someone you like. It does distinguish down to at least some degree of intelligence (not the entire population qualifies), but not to such an extreme extent that you will find yourself as the only local member which doesn't make for much of a social network if one is seeking to build a social network through the organization.
eta: Well, your link had me interested, so I looked around a bit at some of the other high IQ societies. I knew that I didn't have scores to qualify me for ones like the 99.9th percentiles societies, but did see that I can get into some of the 99th percentile ones and ones a bit higher than that. Have any of you ever joined anything like Intertel or any of the other more selective societies? I don't at the moment see the point for me in that Mensa alone has so few members in my area that I doubt that there would be more members of an even more selective society. I'd be curious to see what others thought if they had ever belonged, though. I'm not looking for an arrogant bunch of braggarts to hang out with and I am slowly developing a group of close friends in my area, but it has taken time since moving here a few years back. My initial thought in joining Mensa was that it was going to provide good resources re my dd, but it didn't turn out that way. There are other aspects of it that I do enjoy like the monthly magazine, though. I don't want to pay dues to something that provides little social networking, no assistance with parenting a gifted kid, and nothing beyond the minimal stuff I already get from Mensa, though.
Last edited by Cricket2; 07/11/09 07:06 AM.
