Philosophy publication and graduate admission in mathematics

[764527]

To give a bit of my background, I am a junior double majoring in mathematics and philosophy aiming for a Ph.D. in pure mathematics. Recently, I wrote a paper for a philosophy class that was extremely well-received by my professor, so much that he encouraged me to submit it for possible publication in a professional philosophy journal. In short, my paper critiques an interpretation of Descartes's Meditations by a prominent philosopher made several years back. My work is an analytic (as opposed to continental) philosophy paper, meaning that it involves the application of formal logic. (For example, an argument made by the philosopher I critiqued requires a certain biconditional statement, but I argued that he did not have sufficient evidence to support one of the conditionals.) However, the subject matter of the paper is largely irrelevant to mathematics, my intended field of study in graduate school.

So, my question is: would having a paper published in a professional journal yet unrelated to mathematics be of nontrivial benefit to my chances of admission to a Ph.D. program in pure mathematics?

 

[micromass]

We can't look in the minds of an admission comity, so we can't answer that question.

I can only say that if I were in the comity, then it would have no effect what-so-ever.

 

[tofayelbd]

If your publication related to mathematics, it can give you great advantage. Yet your publication will helpful for admission to a Ph.D. program in pure mathematics? Because for PhD programmer publication is most essential.

 

[764527]

We can't look in the minds of an admission comity, so we can't answer that question.

I can only say that if I were in the comity, then it would have no effect what-so-ever.

Thank you for your response, micromass. I totally understand that no one here can look into the minds of an admission committee; I was simply hoping that perhaps math faculty or graduate students here who have had interacted with admission committee members can at least offer me some insight into the matter.

If your publication related to mathematics, it can give you great advantage. Yet your publication will helpful for admission to a Ph.D. program in pure mathematics? Because for PhD programmer publication is most essential.

Sorry, but I'm not sure if I understand your response. What do you mean by "programmer publication"?

 

[tofayelbd]

Thank you for your response, micromass. I totally understand that no one here can look into the minds of an admission committee; I was simply hoping that perhaps math faculty or graduate students here who have had interacted with admission committee members can at least offer me some insight into the matter.



Sorry, but I'm not sure if I understand your response. What do you mean by "programmer publication"?

Sorry, I want to say here, "for PhD program publication is most essential".

 

[deluks917]

I think it depends on who is looking. Some people will find it pretty impressive other will not really care. So on the whole its a plus.

 

[tofayelbd]

I think it depends on who is looking. Some people will find it pretty impressive other will not really care. So on the whole its a plus.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you that on the whole its a plus.