Writing my College Essay on Poker?

[Isura]

Since you're 18, this would be your college entrance essay right?

This is a pretty dumb idea. What institute of higher learning is going to be interested in excepting someone who's only interest in life is playing a card game for money.

[asherpuppy]

Brett, writing about poker is a huge gamble (I'm on the faculty at UC Riverside, and most of these people in admissions are really serious).

If you do write about it, you probably want to hit on some social aspect of it, or just how the pure math side intrigues you. One thing you might talk about is how poker terminology has become prevalent in everyday talk even among underage people. I'm not sure about you, but I hear high school kids around here saying "I'm all in" about everything under the sun. Other phrases I hear outside of poker context are "pot committed", "cold call", "fold", "I got rivered". Heck, I told my 5-year old I was sending him to time-out and he said, "Oh yeah, well I RERAISE you!"

[bawcerelli]

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Horrid advice, the average high school kid should just write about sex then (which potentially is less controversial than gambling to a college admissions officer).


X

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well that depends on what you mean by 'talk about sex'. talking about how you like orgies probably isn't a good idea. talking about teen pregnancy rates, std's etc. is completely different. it's all about context. that's why i said be careful how you word it. I.E. look at the poker explosion as a social issue, not from view of oh sh!t lots of fish poker is a great way to make money.

[Maulik]

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Where (did you end up / are you going)?

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I chose the Rochester Institute of Technology, in NY. Recently heard that yourfoxygrandma goes there. Ended up leaving because it turns out I hate engineering and really cold weather.

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i figured that out when I visited in April,and it was snowing [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

I used to be a Caltech student, where there is small contingency of highly profitable online players. Since I am slightly older (25), I have some glimpses into the administrative world from people I still keep in touch with. I've heard that administration there is "worried" about the trend, and I imagine that other places are as well. While poker is an excellent game of incomplete information, the general public, though enthusiastic about it, still views it as gambling. Any admissions officer reviewing your essay is going to say "if we admit this kid, there's a chance that he'll be spending 4-5 hours a day playing poker via our network instead of focusing on his studies." I suggest finding a different topic. Best of luck!

[gergery]

I use to read admissions essays for Business schools, and as a general principle I think there are more downsides than upsides to writing about poker in your essay.

Main downside: you don’t know what perceptions the admissions officer will have about poker players. But in general, poker players tend to be viewed as 1) gamblers like slot machine players who will eventually lose everything, and 2) un-productive members of society who will not go on to cure cancer/run big companies and generally be cool alumni the school can cite as having turned out. Those are big preconceptions to overcome in 300 words or less.

One important thing for any essay is to elaborate on why your activity is a cool link to your future career. If you’re going to be an equities analyst or bond trader then poker might be a good topic. Not many other career fields come to mind where the lessons learned from poker are wonderfully applicable.