I'm in a bit of a situation here writing my final essay for my Wharton app; the one about "what would you do in 3 hours of work-free time" that tries to probe into what you do in your free time and how it's impacted you...
My profile is, in my opinion, solid for b-school. Math/econ degree from an ivy league, 760 GMAT, 2 years of tech M&A banking, and 2 years as a mobile product manager for an ed-tech company. Also have volunteered and mentored high school students for years.
However, when it comes to my hobbies, I don't have the "started a rock band" or "love running marathons" passions that are fairly typical and make for good stories in these types of essays. My highest time-commitment hobbies are card games: poker mostly, and other strategy-based card games.
My question is whether it is appropriate to "be honest" and write about this passion as the topic of the essay. The fact is, I've achieved quite a bit in these games: I've cashed at professional poker tournaments and have also cashed at other professional gaming tournaments, which I've traveled around the world to attend, on invite. I've met a community of incredibly diverse people from around the world as part of this hobby, and have made friends all around the world. I've written articles on card-based strategy for various blogs, and contribute actively to that community.
It remains though, that if I had told most people in my I-banking bullpen about these hobbies, they would have laughed and hurled profanities at me before going off to play beer-pong / snort blow.
My question is whether admissions committees are equally boneheaded / superficial, or is it o.k. / permissible to write about this topic without admissions officers at Wharton cringing???
Any advice is appreciated, thanks!
No beer-pong.
Put it this way, if you wouldn't tell your rabbi about it, don't list it. But also, don't come off as a saint, because you're a finance guy, not teaching Somalians English.
BUT, what you've listed seems more than appropriate to me, so I wouldn't worry too much. Sounds pretty good, you seem like a nice dude.
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