Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Do you list DYS on a college application?

This came up recently on a different forum. I haven't put much thought into it simply because we are not near that point yet. However, as I watched the answers come in, I was surprised. Everyone said no, don't list it as EVERYONE at a top school should be mensa, dys etc. Statistically that is obviously not the case (at least with dys because qualifying mensa is easier), and I wonder how many people said "don't list it" simply because they don't have a child who qualifies. There have been sour grapes in that group with people who didn't get in, so that may be the case again. My kids are not DYS yet (and haven't been rejected either), so I don't have any bitterness etc. My thought would be to list it especially if you were active in the group. Discussion anyone?

I don't have a DYS child either (haven't applied & likely won't... not sure my two are at that level), but I've always been confused by why people say don't put mensa on your resume (it's always worked for me).

(lol mensa is all I have - imagine my dismay when I found out it was the easiest high IQ society to get into ;p )

Anyway, I'd include it. Even if it is true that everyone at a top school should be at this level, doesn't it show initiative that your child has applied and participates?

Just my opinion - I could be missing part of the picture.

(Coming from: someone who reads CVs/applications frequently as part of my job, in contexts where it is routine for applicants to be highly intelligent people with high achievement.)

For both MENSA and DYS: I wouldn't recommend listing them, if all the applicant did was to be a member, use the organisation for socialising, use it to give support to parents, etc. Rationale: by college age, high ability ought to be evidenced by the student's achievement. If it is, you don't need these stamps of approval. If it isn't, high IQ isn't actually a plus at all - it just raises red flags as to why this high potential individual isn't achieving their potential.

(By contrast, as a parent filling in a selective school application for a child up to early teens, I would certainly use these things.)

If the applicant has actually done something with the membership - has started and run a special interest group, say - then by all means list it, but emphasise the activity not the exclusive parent organisation.

One might argue that it's sensible to list these things even if they won't help much, on the basis that they won't do any harm. IME the stereotype of people who belong to high IQ organisations is prevalent enough that this is risky. No recruiter is going to act on the basis of that stereotype consciously, of course, but you are wise to avoid setting off unconscious biases against you, too!

This is a good point (i.e. part of the picture I was missing). High ability doesn't always reflect in achievement of course (i.e. lack of study skills due to having never been challenged, for one), but... to succeed in post secondary these skills should be in place, making achievement more important than IQ.

I agree with ColinsMum.

We do intend to list DYS on my daughter's college application this year. However, she did not actually become a DYS until she was a sophomore in high school (after attending THINK at Davidson). The Davidson stuff is all over her college app anyway (four courses of college credit through THINK), so she put it in. It would have been a harder call to make if she had been accepted before high school, I guess. There is a section in the Common App in the Academics section called "Honors", and she listed it there and ticked the 10th grade box. If she had been accepted prior to high school and we had decided to enter it, we probably would have mentioned it in the additional information section.

Somehow Mensa has a different flavor to me (and seem more likely to trigger bias than Davidson). I would be more hesitant to list that unless my kid had somehow been very active in it.

I will say this... if an admissions officer is biased against gifted kids, I am pretty sure my kid doesn't want to attend their college anyway.

It's not bias against gifted people you have to worry about; it's an admissions officer looking at the application and thinking that your daughter wants to be admitted on the basis of intelligence, instead of what she can actually do. I don't really think that DYS admittance is a high school honor even if one is admitted during high school.

On the other hand, it might be pretty harmless to include it, since most admissions officers will never have heard of the program. The only possible danger would be if they looked it up, or asked about it during an interview.

Studies such as

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Peabody/SMPY/Top1in10000.pdf
Top 1 in 10,000: a 10-year follow-up of the profoundly gifted.
Lubinski D, Webb RM, Morelock MJ, Benbow CP.
Abstract
Adolescents identified before the age of 13 (N = 320) as having exceptional mathematical or verbal reasoning abilities (top 1 in 10,000) were tracked over 10 years. They pursued doctoral degrees at rates over 50 times base-rate expectations, with several participants having created noteworthy literary, scientific, or technical products by their early 20s. Early observed distinctions in intellectual strength (viz., quantitative reasoning ability over verbal reasoning ability, and vice versa) predicted sharp differences in their developmental trajectories and occupational pursuits. This special population strongly preferred educational opportunities tailored to their precocious rate of learning (i.e., appropriate developmental placement), with 95% using some form of acceleration to individualize their education.

suggest that college admissions officers ought to pay attention to academic achievements before age 13, but as a practical matter the others are probably correct that listing such achievements won't help. At a university like Caltech where the SAT is a "low-ceiling" test for its admissions pool, especially in math, it is possible that looking at talent search SAT scores at age 12 or earlier provides additional information about an applicant.

The problem is that by high school, expectations for academic success are even higher. Colleges would want to also see that your child is a National Merit Semi-Finalist on the PSAT, an AP scholar (taking lots of AP classes), going to Nationals in Math or Science Bowl or the Intel Science Fair Competition.

I'm a college professor and have worked on the faculty committee involved with admissions.

The short answer is that I would absolutely include DYS on a college application. It is part of your son/daughter's story.

If you want to finesse it you can place it in context rather than as a stand alone 'bullet point'.