My guess, brah, is that she's insecure with her own intelligence, and you apparently are not, so this is intimidating for her. Childhood baggage is my first thought on this scenario. One possibility is she was berated about her brains when young, so she didn't grow up feeling secure about how smart she is.

This just seems strange to me. I have a high IQ, and hang out in some high IQ groups, and it actually seems fairly common (both according to member experiences and some published surveys) that it is the men who tend to get intimidated by smarter women. Some overtly so, others may think they want a smarter woman, but while they may be impressed with smart women, do not tend to be able to keep a romantic interest.

she's stroking your ego

It's a natural evolutionary reaction to a potential red flag.

Creative people with high IQs are usually androgyne, or mixed gender. Studies showed that the more close to the end of the gender scale on the male side, or "macho" a man or "femme" a woman, the higher the reproduction success.

Studies showing average IQ scores formed a Bell Curve on the gender chart, moving upward as the slider moves toward the gender "middle" of the chart (androgyne), declining toward the other side (trans).

So, tying the two statistics together..increasing androgyny usually equals higher IQ, and people closer to the extreme end of their bio gender on the gender chart-the most macho men or femme women- have the highest reproduction success, the woman was instinctively skipping the drama that usually ensues from high IQ romances.

Most writers, movie stars, directors, writers, etc. are high IQ people, and usually reproduce only accidentally, with a series of relationships.

I cannot claim personal experience in being intimidated by anothers intellect. A guess would be she may worry you will quickly become bored with her conversation.
Good luck!

My last 2 exes were dumb. I wonder if I would feel the same way if I dated someone smarter than me? Would he get frustrated at what I don't know, and leave because I don't challenge him in a conversation enough? That is how I see it as, coming from a woman's perspective.

I can relate to her, actually. When I am dating a man who is very intelligent, in the back of my mind I worry that if I am not able to be as intellectually stimulating to him as he is to me, he will get bored. Let her know her intellect revs your mojo (if it does).

When you are used to being the smartest person in the room or in a relationship, it's a shock to your system to meet someone as or more intelligent than you are. She may grow to appreciate it more and realize you two could make a good team, or not... Good luck!

Play dumb.

Coming from a woman there’s no telling what she meant by her comment as women are kind of unpredictable.

Is she quiet? How long have you been hanging out with her? Are you sure she's all that bright?

I just got over a crush I had on someone I'd been talking to (online) for a year. I was broken-hearted for a couple weeks. Then, by random chance, I saw the gaps in his knowledge and the limits of his intellect in a professional setting. It took me a year of almost daily conversations to realize how much smarter I am than he is.

The spell was instantly broken.

I have come to understand that quiet people are dangerous. At least, they're dangerous to me. My mind will project whatever it desires onto a quiet man.

only she would know

She's probably just insecure about her own intelligence. Or she may be accustomed to being the smartest person in the relationship and is unsure how to be with someone of equal intelligence.

Perhaps it is not your intelligence, but the way you present it. Perhaps you are intense, or aggressive (to her), etc.

She might not want to disappoint you.

Imposter syndrome. Try to ignore it; don't feed it. She thinks you're smarter than her and won't like her when you finally figure it out. It could be anything from a slight, negligible concern of hers to a raging, universally-sabotaging insecurity. She's either secure enough to be open about her weaknesses or she's fishing for validation; possibly both. In any case, don't add fuel. If she can't get the message about how much you like whatever it is you appreciate about her, run away. If she constantly mewls for validation, run away. Good luck.

And my question is - why even make an issue out of this before you've barely begun ?

Why not just relax, go with the flow, and see how you both feel hanging out together ?

Why not show how smart and patient you are and let things develop naturally.

It's possible she has unacknowledged insecurities about her own intelligence.
Tread lightly, and good luck!