Poker and College Essays

[Popinjay]

Anyone think it's a bad idea to write about playing poker in your college essay?

[Evan]

I do

[La Brujita]

I think it is a pretty bad idea. If the essay gets in the hands of someone who doesn't like gambling your chances of acceptance have gone down.

If you write about how you love to mow the grass there is a much lower chance of it being read by a grass lover who hates grass cutters.

[Blarg]

Very funny and good response, Brujita.

[Tosh]

FWIW I am doing my dissertation next year on game theory and will no doubt bring poker into it a fair bit. Though not about my playing.

[ilya]

I think writing about poker is probably -AV. At the very least it's bound to increase your variance.
You don't at all need to write about how amazing you are. I wrote about missing my grandmother's tasty cooking. And yes, I got in.
Whatever the colleges may say, I think for most of them your grades & scores are more important. The interview also matters, and you'll have to talk about your essay...so whatever topic you choose, make sure it's one you can talk about with enthusiasm and clarity, and without sounding like an [censored].

[Sponger15SB]

Depends what school you're applying to. If you've got a 4.0 and a 1400 and you're applying to some crap school, you could write about how you like to play your penis as a guitar and most likely they won't even read your essay. However if you want to go to a good school I'd stick to some inspirational bullshit as a story.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Depends what school you're applying to. If you've got a 4.0 and a 1400 and you're applying to some crap school, you could write about how you like to play your penis as a guitar and most likely they won't even read your essay. However if you want to go to a good school I'd stick to some inspirational bullshit as a story.

[/ QUOTE ]He is already in college.

If you are writing about poker in general, its not a bad idea, if you are writing about you playing poker, then it would be a bad idea depending on who your teacher is.

[Evan]

If he's already in college than I think its definitely teacher dependant. I've written about it in the past and its been fine.

[Schneids]

I have also written about me being a poker player for college and the professor was very intrigued by it.