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Philosophy Doctoral Candidate Tutoring Math, Logic, and the Humanities
Alex J.

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Hourly Rate: $45

About Alex


Bio

My name is Alex, and I look forward to assisting you! I offer tutoring in secondary and postsecondary mathematics (high school algebra through undergraduate calculus IV, including that relevant to the ACT and other standardized tests), philosophy and formal logic, and essay-writing in the humanities and social sciences.

My educational background is in mathematics and philosophy. I received a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in May...

My name is Alex, and I look forward to assisting you! I offer tutoring in secondary and postsecondary mathematics (high school algebra through undergraduate calculus IV, including that relevant to the ACT and other standardized tests), philosophy and formal logic, and essay-writing in the humanities and social sciences.

My educational background is in mathematics and philosophy. I received a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in May 2018. In 2019, I began my graduate studies in Philosophy at Columbia University, where I am currently enrolled as an ABD PhD candidate. I received an M.A. and an M.Phil. in Philosophy during the course of my graduate studies at Columbia. My doctoral research interests lie in the history of late-modern European philosophy and its contributions to contemporary social, political, and economic thought.

During my educational career, I have accumulated a range of teaching and tutoring experiences. As an undergraduate, I tutored student athletes in philosophy and worked as a teaching assistant for both an upper-division and a graduate-level formal logic course in the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. Between my undergraduate and graduate studies, I spent a year working as a teaching assistant in the Department of Philosophy at my alma mater, leading two biweekly discussion sections per semester during the 2018-19 academic year. As a PhD student, I have worked as a recitation instructor for a total of eight semesters. During the 2024 Summer term, I was the instructor of record for an intensive upper-division course on social and political philosophy, for which I designed the syllabus and curriculum. Most recently, I have been serving as a long-term math substitute at public high schools in central MN. I have recently taught high school Geometry, Algebra II, and Calculus I and II.


Education

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Mathematics, Philosophy
Columbia University
Masters
Columbia University
Enrolled
  • Licensed teacher

Policies

  • Hourly Rate: $45
  • Rate details: Rate is a negotiable sliding scale for low-income students and Pell Grant recipients
  • Lesson cancellation: 1 hours notice required
  • Background check passed on 6/1/2025

  • Your first lesson is backed by our Good Fit Guarantee

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Approved Subjects

Discrete Math

Discrete Math

'Discrete mathematics' is often the name assigned to courses covering the basics of number theory, enumerative combinatorics, set theory, and first-order logic, typically required for undergraduate students of computer science. I have taught all of this material, albeit not all as part of the same course under the banner of 'discrete math'. I have taught set theory and first-order logic on three occasions as a doctoral recitation instructor at Columbia University (they are one of my 'areas of teaching competence' at the undergraduate level), and I have taught basic number theory and combinatorics to advanced high schoolers as a licensed math teacher. If you are taking a course which covers any or all of this material, I would be happy to assist you. As an ill-defined umbrella term, 'discrete mathematics' also encompasses others areas, like graph theory and coding theory, which I do not feel qualified to tutor. Let me know what you might be struggling with, and I'll see if I can help.
Essay Writing

Essay Writing

As a doctoral candidate in Philosophy, I've been regularly assisting others with their academic essays in the humanities for six years now. I have also evaluated and graded student essays in philosophy as a former instructor of record at Columbia University. For many more years than that, I've been writing essays, mostly in philosophy and the history of philosophy, but also in intellectual history and the interpretive social sciences. I'd be happy to discuss how you might go about improving the argumentative, stylistic, or hermeneutic dimensions of your essay.
Logic

Logic

I am primarily an historian of philosophy and a teacher of secondary mathematics by training, but I have had considerable exposure to formal/mathematical logic both as an undergraduate Math-Philosophy dual-degree student and as a PhD student in Philosophy. As a senior undergrad, I served as a teaching assistant for math courses covering the syntax, semantics, proof systems, and completeness of first-order logic, as well as the more advanced topics of decidability and incompleteness. As a PhD student, I've taught semester-long recitation sections for 'Symbolic Logic' (covering the syntax, semantics, and proof systems of first-order classical logic) on three occasions.
Sociology

Sociology

One of my areas of specialization as a doctoral candidate in Philosophy is social theory and its history. I am competent to tutor students enrolled in sociology courses which deal with the major figures of 19th- and 20th-century social theory (Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Durkheim, Weber, Toennies, Simmel, the Frankfurt School, Parsons, Mills, Mead, Bourdieu, Foucault). Marxist theory is another one of my area of specializations, and I am competent to tutor students in (neo-)Marxist theoretical models employed by practicing sociologists. Beyond this, my familiarity with sociology is limited; I would not, e.g., be comfortable tutoring students in quantitative research methods in sociology.
Thesis Writing

Thesis Writing

As an all-but-dissertation (ABD) PhD student in Philosophy, I have been working on my doctoral thesis for several years now, during which time I have also read and commented on portions of those of my peers, many of whom have gone on to successfully defend. All this has made me quite familiar with the parameters of the 'thesis' as an academic and literary production, at least in the humanities. I also wrote an undergraduate thesis which became my writing sample submission to PhD programs in Philosophy, leading to acceptances at Brown, Columbia, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pittsburgh. If you are writing a thesis or large-scale research paper in the humanities (philosophy, history, classics, cultural studies), I would be delighted by the opportunity to momentarily take my eyes off my own thesis and direct them to yours.
ACT English
ACT Math
ACT Reading
ACT Science
Algebra 1
Algebra 2
Calculus
Differential Equations
Geometry
Grammar
GRE
Linear Algebra
Literature
Philosophy
Political Science
Precalculus
Probability
Reading
SAT Math
SAT Reading
Statistics
Trigonometry
Vocabulary
Writing
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Hourly Rate: $45
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