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Mensa on your application CV?

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by Saffa » Sun Feb 03, 2008 11:17 pm
Hi all,

Would you put the fact that you're a Mensan on you B-School app.? From what I've read in other forums is that interviewers (mostly non-mensans) will not even consider your CV if you do that (this is mostly for job applications).

There seems to be a stigma around Mensans that they are arrogant and by putting Mensa on your CV is like putting "I have a IQ of 150+".

The context that I want to add it to my app is in my interests or hobbies.
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by parore26 » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:30 am
I'm not sure what the impact of putting MENSA on your CV is but I do know that an overall percentile of greater than 95 on your GMAT automatically qualifies you for membership into the MENSA at least here in the United States. So, it is likely that if you're applying to a top Business school a lot of candidates are qualified to be part of this organisation so I don't think this is going to distinguish you.

If you've done some work with MENSA in the past then that might be worth mentioning.
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Re: Mensa on your application CV?

by jelt » Mon Feb 04, 2008 12:45 pm
Being a member of Mensa, as with most other interests and hobbies, are not relevant to your business school aspirations. Unless these are 'fun' interests that will make people think you're interesting and be an asset to campus life, I would leave them out.
Saffa wrote:Hi all,

Would you put the fact that you're a Mensan on you B-School app.? From what I've read in other forums is that interviewers (mostly non-mensans) will not even consider your CV if you do that (this is mostly for job applications).

There seems to be a stigma around Mensans that they are arrogant and by putting Mensa on your CV is like putting "I have a IQ of 150+".

The context that I want to add it to my app is in my interests or hobbies.
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by Dan_@_DukeEMBA » Wed Feb 13, 2008 5:58 am
I work in admissions, and I would not recommend adding it.

It is much more impressive for your natural intelligence to manifest itself through your interview, essays, recommendations.

Dan
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by gmat765 » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:59 pm
They will work through your resume. Why cv is not helpful?
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by Bronson » Fri May 02, 2008 5:02 pm
The purpose of GMAT is to test ones abilities to grasp new and complex concepts, which is required by business schools.

Mensa membership is yet another prove for such capabilities.

It is controversial why some of the admission comities react in a negative way on this matter.
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by slcjoe » Mon May 19, 2008 1:23 am
I read this joke somewhere: you need two things to be a Mensa member. 1). scoring 95 percentile GMAT (around 720, which is -while not mediocre, is also not quite impressive either), and 2). being enough of a douche bag to actually apply and pay for membership dues.

Fallacy or not, such display on your CV is usually perceived as sign of pettiness and incompetence of subtlety for exactly that reason. Rather than brag about something that was handed to you at birth, why not concentrate on accomplishments that you had to work really hard to earn.
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