The Triple Nine Society – A Unique Venue For Intellectual Exchange & Educational Development

The Triple Nine Society (TNS) was founded in 1978 and is “committed to friendship, communication, the adventure of intellectual exploration, and a greater realization of individual potentials” (quoted from our Constitution). TNS’s guiding principles are democracy, collegiality, respect for diverse philosophies, and openness to innovation and evolution.

The more than 1,700 TNS members come from diverse educational, ethnic, cultural and political backgrounds, and our geographic distribution spans 45 U.S. states and territories, as well as 40 countries (see our Member Map).

Our singular commonality lies in that we all have scored at the 99.9th percentile or above on a test of adult intelligence, e.g., GMAT, MAT, Stanford-Binet, Wechsler, HAWIE, etc. (see our Test Scores page for a full list and qualifying scores).

Our members’ continual access to others who share their own great intellectual strengths provides unique opportunities for mentorship in both educational and business settings, for personal and interpersonal growth, and for social-emotional self-actualization, not readily available outside the Society.

Members enjoy the benefits of intellectual exchange via an active email forum, a Facebook group, our journal Vidya, annual meetings in the US as well as Europe, and more. 

TNS is a 501(c)(7) organization. Note that neither dues nor donations are tax-deductible in the U.S.

The Triple Nine Society Foundation – Investing In the Gifted

In 2015, TNS established a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit subsidiary, the Triple Nine Society Foundation (TNSF), whose charitable mission includes providing scholarships to intellectually gifted students pursuing higher education goals, educating the public about the special needs of very intellectually gifted individuals, and other charitable work consistent with TNS’s guiding principles.

Note that donations to the TNSF are typically tax-deductible in the U.S.

TNSF Essay Contest Theme: “How I Will Use My MBA to Change the World”

Neither pursuing an MBA nor taking the GMAT test is a prerequisite for TNS membership. In recent years, though, several of the most widely used standardized tests - including the GRE, LSAT, and SAT – have been redesigned to preclude their use in measuring intelligence at the 99.9th percentile level. Consequently, an unusually large percentage of our new members have been qualifying for TNS on the basis of their GMAT scores, and the majority of them are either current or future MBAs. 

Consistent with our desire to provide a rich intellectual environment that addresses the specific interests of both current and prospective members, the TNSF is sponsoring an essay contest whose theme is: “How I Will Use My MBA to Change the World.” Participation is limited to individuals age 18 or over who have achieved a GMAT score meeting TNS’s admissions criteria (currently 746 or above). TNS members and non-members alike are encouraged to enter.

Cash scholarships will be awarded to winning entrants by way of payments to the educational institutions of their choice. Recipients of the top three cash prizes will also receive the designation of “BrainFutures Scholar.” 

Detailed instructions for entering the contest, as well as contest rules and prize descriptions may be found elsewhere on this site.  

Sponsorship of Additional TNSF Scholarship Awards, Contests, and Projects  

 Sponsorship of additional awards, contests, and projects is welcome, whether by TNS members, non-members, businesses, or other organizations.

Benefits to sponsors include:

• Naming rights (subject to approval by TNS’s Executive Committee)
• Ability to limit recipients of the awards they sponsor to:
• residents of a specific geographical area,
• students at or graduates of a specific school, and/or
• those whose essays or applications indicate intent to pursue a specific career.

Sponsors will have the right to select winners of the prizes they fund from entries pre-screened by the ExCom or its designee(s).

Sponsors who fail to name their winners by December 15, 2017 will lose the right to select their winners. The TNSF Board or its designee(s) will select the winners in these instances.

Any Questions?

For further information please contact Bill Matson at foundation@triplenine.org.