Poker and College Essays

[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.

[Popinjay]

actually for clarification this is for admissions

[scrub]

From what I was told during the application boot camp my prep school put us through, the essay can't help you that much, but it can hurt you.

Unless you have a great story to tell about saving a building full of nuns from a fire or feeding orphans or something, writing a bland essay that shows you can put a sentence together is better than writing about something that could make admissions officers nervous.

Incidentally, Scrubette's younger brother was telling us about a talk that Stanford's dean of admissions gave his RA group last week during Thanksgiving, and he said that the admissions director claimed that one of the main uses of the essay was to help "identify potential wierdos." I think she was talking about kids who wouldn't be able to handle the social aspect of college, but a potential gambling problem would probably fall in there too...

scrub

[deacsoft]

There is one advantage to writing about poker that many of you have overlooked. That is the fact that you enjoy it. Alnog with the fact that you will probaly enjoy writing about it more than say... an essay on punctuation marks and their place in proper english. I have always found that when I write about topics I'm interested in my finished product is of a much higher quality. Now, I'm not saying your professor will approve of your topic, but am saying that it will more than likely be of a satisfactory composition.

[PoBoy321]

Well, there's certainly a risk involved with writing about poker, but there are definitely ways that you can make it very pleasing to an admissions director. Before I go into my explanation, let me preface this by saying that my college essay was about how James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" gave me a love of learning. So don't let anyone tell you that a bullshit essay won't help you get into the school you want. As long as it's written well and doesn't SOUND like bullshit, it should be good.

Anyway, there are definitely aspects of poker playing that a college admissions officer would like to see in a potential applicant. If you write "I play poker for hours a day. I spend most of my free time thinking about poker, and how I can improve my play and make more money," they're probably not going to like it. If you can say "Poker has taught me more than anything else that life is full of disappointment. There will be times when you do everything right, you do everything as best as you possibly can and things won't always turn out for the best. It has taught me however that in life, you'll run into these roadblocks, but if you are persistent, keep doing things as best as you can and don't let these little defeats phase you, you'll be a winner in the long run. This has helped form me into the ambitious young man that I am." I wouldn't make poker the basis of your essay, but if you use it as a way to show that you're persistent, hard-working and undeterred by defeat, you can make it a great essay.

[The Dude]

As far as an admissions essay goes, I think it's probably a bad idea. Now when it comes to class project or essay assignments, it can be a lot of fun. I went to a Christian University and used to use gambling in my assignments all the time. It got a lot a fun attention.