On the other hand, a Mensa gathering (not a member, myself) is one of the few situations I've been in that was hard to characterize as anything other than freakshow on earth. Shows that you can maximize a single dimension so much that you are left with people incapable of communication.

Similarly, an organization of students maximizing academic performance has a certain vibe that definitely doesn't feel "perfect". It doesn't even seem like that useful of a skill, but I'd have to know the purpose of a uni to comment further.

Mensa is for those who are insecure about their intelligence and like the idea that they can easily rank themselves above others with a number designed to check if you're mentally handicapped. I'm not surprised they can't communicate.

I always thought to myself, what if I take the test and pass it? Then what?

If I fail, that's easy. I lick my wounds and go home.

But if I pass? The shape of the distribution -- basically slicing off one end of a bell curve -- means that in all likelihood, I would be at the lower end of the IQ scale within the group, even if at the upper end within the overall population.

So I'd be taking a test and paying money for the privilege of being the dumbest person in the room. It hardly seemed attractive to me.