Interested in FE, Unique Background

[Carl]

Hi,

I am interested in pursuing a career in financial engineering. I live near NYC, so I have been looking at various financial engineering/mathematics programs in the area. However, my background is unique, so I do not know how to assess the probability of an acceptance.

After graduating with a BS in Physics from a liberal arts college (3.2 GPA), I played poker professionally for about 1 year. I consider myself to be a very knowledgeable student of both the mathematical/game theory side of the game as well as the human aspect of it. I then quit playing professionally and got a job as a high school physics teacher so I could make a more "dignified" proposal of marriage to my girlfriend (she said yes!). I am now in my second year of teaching both conceptual and calculus based physics at the high school level.

I have only taken a few diagnostic GRE exams, but I hope to score an 800 quant /700 verbal and close to perfect on the analytical writing, which would be in line with my SAT scores and my diagnostic exams. My grades in college were not great (C- in Linear Algebra) but I blame most of that on my 3 seasons of varsity sports freshman through junior year. I quit the track and cross-country teams as a senior, and then did much better in my physics and math classes. I also got an A in the C++ course I took.

How will professional poker look to an admissions committee? Will it be negative? Positive? When I applied to be a teacher I knew to downplay it, but it seems to be much more applicable in this line of work.

Thanks for the input.

 

[woody]

I cannot speak for the admissions committee of any college, nor can anyone here, but I don't see anything in your background that should negatively influence any decision. Nothing wrong with professional poker and many financial engineers come from a physics background.

We don't assess applications or give opinions on chances of acceptance (or at least we're not supposed to) but if I were you I'd risk the price of applying to a couple of schools that you think fit you. Try for fall 2008.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Your story really reads like Timothy Sykes book

I don't know how you would portrait "professional poker" in your essays but you risk being seen as having a gambling addiction problem
If you were profitable as a poker player, maybe you can tout it. But if you lost your rent money playing it, then don't.

I'm sure you want to play to your strength because this industry seems to have plenty of high rollers taking huge bets. But the keys to MFE admission seem to be around few basic things : strong math and programming background, good work ethnic, teamwork and ability to handle stress well.

If you decide to include the "poker" thing in your essay, send me a copy. I want to see how you come out of it

 

[dstefan]

Rather interesting background, but it all depends on your math and programming abilities. Given the C++ grade, the last part seems to have been taken care of already.

 

[John]

Obviously I don't know you, except what you described here, but you seem to be cut out to be a trader.

BTW you might want to check out the book 'The Education of a Speculator' by Niederhoffer, a famed Wall Street trader. He did say in his book, 'I speculate, You gamble' though

 

[DominiConnor]

I have no idea about admissions committees, being a pimp, but if you keep up the poker skills a few managers would be intrigued enough to get you in to see if you really are that good.

I worry more about your maths than poker.