Piled Higher and Deeper (also known as PhD Comics) is a discontinued newspaper and webcomic strip produced from 1997 to 2021. The series was written and drawn by Jorge Cham, and follows the lives of several grad students. First published in 1997 when Cham was a grad student himself at Stanford University, the strip deals with issues of life in graduate school, including the difficulties of scientific research, the perils of procrastination, and the complex student–supervisor relationship. the strip's website had 6 million visitors in the previous year.
History Piled Higher and Deeper was first published in The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper at Stanford University, in October 1997. The newspaper had put out a call for comics and Cham, a student and teaching assistant at the time, discussed ideas for comics with his brother and friends. Cham's brother, Jaime, suggested there should be a comic about grad school "because that's when the real pain begins". Cham had no formal art training and had never tried drawing comics before but his comic was accepted. Cham created the website a few weeks later. Cham continued the strip while completing his PhD and later while an instructor in mechanical engineering at Caltech, then in July 2005 left this work to become a full-time cartoonist.
Originally, the strip was drawn in black-and-white, eventually became grayscale, and finally became color in June 2004.
The archive of the strip are available for free online. The strip was also syndicated free to student newspapers, with Cham earning a living through book sales, merchandise, and giving lectures.
Themes The title of the comic comes from an old joke about becoming a Ph.D., which explains that "B.S." stands for "bullshit", "M.S." stands for "More of the Same" (or "More Shit"), and "Ph.D." stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper".
The comic follows the lives of graduate students and their professors. Reviewer Sara Coelho said "the comic deals with everyday frustrations of life in the lab – procrastination, dealing with advisers, serving on committees, lack of inspiration". Comics deal with the isolation of graduate work.
Cham's comics have also been on real-world research, such as a five-comic series following a visit to CERN.
Characters Piled Higher and Deeper introduced its main characters early in its run, and their personalities have remained fairly constant during the strip's several years of publication. In the strip's first few seasons, the characters were clearly Stanford University students, though the number of school-specific references and jokes has decreased since.
Cham has said that while the characters are not based on real people, he was inspired by colleagues, classmates, and his brother's friends.
Students
The Nameless Grad Student (a.k.a., The Nameless Hero) – a graduate student in engineering, this bespectacled protagonist has procrastinated through the entire strip without receiving a name. He looks similar to comic strip author, Jorge Cham and is modelled after him (at one point, the younger sister of the character, Dee, remarks that her brother has dreams of quitting grad school and becoming a cartoonist). Cham chose to make the character nameless as "when you're a graduate student, professors never remember your name."Little is known about the hero's background, although early on Mike Slackenerny states that he knew the hero's older brother (who quit his PhD and went on to work for a "Silicon Valley Company"). As he is seen playing with two children at home during his winter vacation,; he probably has younger siblings, nieces and/or nephews, or cousins. He has been increasingly seen with a set group of friends (one is named Mikkel)) and seems, at least marginally, to be the most favored graduate student of his advisor, Prof. Smith. At the conclusion of the film, the character states for the first time that his name is Winston, named after Jorge's father; in the films, Winston is a biochemistry grad student.
Cecilia – A geeky engineering student born around May 1, 1980,Cecilia turned 25 in 2005: ; Cham, Scooped!, p. 12. though earlier strips have her born in 1973.Cecilia went to her 10 year high school reunion in 2001: ; Cham, Scooped!, p. 12. Cecilia spent years refusing to admit that she was truly a geek at heart. However, in one strip she finally with hesitation admitted she is indeed a geek. She is also a programmer as well. Addicted to chocolate and cookies, she has long since taken enough classes and conducted enough research to graduate, but a mysterious psychological force keeps her in school. She stated in an interview for a project by her friend Tajel that her father was a professor, a "great teacher", something that may or may not be a motivation for her to go above and beyond (also, her choice of words indicates that her father may have died). During class, she deliberately wears frumpy clothes to discourage male interest, since the vast majority of her classmates are men. This strategy is not always successful – "Excuse me, female, will you marry me?"; Cham, Scooped!, p. 14. She has had two boyfriends in the course of the strip: David and Scott. Although she broke up with David relatively quickly, she seriously dated Scott, her crush in high school, for numerous strips;; Cham, Scooped!, p. 67. they had a long-distance relationship for a while after Scott was promoted and moved to London; Cham, Scooped!, p. 69. but broke up amicably in 2007.; Cham, Scooped!, p. 130. Cecilia sometimes accompanies Tajel to political rallies and such events. She was asked in 2006 by a professor to interview for a faculty position at a different institution because "it's the only position you're not overqualified for"; Cham, Scooped!, p. 53. and "we hired one of their grad students, so, diplomatically, they owe us."; Cham, Scooped!, p. 53. Michael Slackenerny – phenomenally lazy, endlessly devious, and remarkably clever, Mike did his undergraduate at Berkeley yet had been in graduate school for longer than anyone can remember (during one of his interviews it was strongly implied that he started grad school in the 1980s), surviving on ramen and free food from various events on campus. He views grad school not as a place but as "a state of mind [...] preferably sleeping". In the spring of 1998, he drove to Las Vegas with a seemingly foolproof plan to beat the blackjack tables, thereby winning enough money to solve Stanford's housing crisis. Instead, he returned with a wife, Jen, who remained an unseen character for some time. Jen became pregnant with their daughter Sophy; Cham, Scooped!, p. 51. and stayed that way for several years, constantly urging Michael to finish his thesis and graduate. Michael finally completed his doctoral defense in 2005 – Jen went into labor just before his presentation began – but did not finish writing his thesis until 2007. After submitting his dissertation, Mike was seen walking home and asking himself, "Now what?"; Cham, Scooped!, p. 131. After a period of job-hunting, he was finally hired by Prof. Smith as a postdoc. Tajel – an anthropologist and the lone social scientist in the main cast. She was Cecilia's roommate before getting married. She is a dedicated activist who frequently attends or organizes rallies. Her frustration with American politics is exacerbated by her not being a United States citizen. She is conversant in Spanish. Her mother is Indian and her father is Caucasian. She married Dr. Khumalo in February 2009. Gerard – the strip's newest "official" character, he is a major in Medieval Scandinavian Cultural Philosophy, who was personally introduced to readers by Tajel, supposedly in response to numerous letters from Humanities majors requesting their own character, and was meant to provide jokes on "obscure manuscripts, dead languages, and being the lowest paid grads on campus. Also, political correctness!" Despite this, Gerard has only been shown twice after his initial introduction, apart from a cameo as a guest at Tajel's wedding, in a joke on the obscurity and uselessness of his field. His first actual storyline within the comic occurs when he is informed that funding has been cut for humanities majors and to leave the strip or find a more useful major, subsequently forcing him to justify why the comic should retain a humanities character. Dee – the hero's younger sister. She is an undergraduate student who has been seen taking the GRE. She also talks on her cellular telephone, eats quite a bit, and naps during class when she is not doing something even more inappropriate, such as chatting or eating a full meal during a test. Dee once phones her "sister dearest", so the main character may have more than one sibling. Dee has a good male friend who she often spends time with and at one point hints that he may have romantic feelings for her. Like the main character, he has not yet been named. Mariko – a Japanese student in the same research field as the hero, she visits Prof. Smith's lab in 1998. Smith assigns her to work with "whoever is lowest in the lab hierarchy", which turns out to be the hero. During her brief stay, she inspires in him a powerful unrequited affection, which he maintains for at least three years. She eventually quits her Ph.D. and starts her own company, at which the hero works briefly. She is still occasionally seen talking with the main character as he works, so her current status is somewhat murky. On a strip dated 28 April 2010, entitled "Lost no more..?", she was seen in an alternate timeline as possibly being the mother of the Nameless Hero's (supposed) baby, with the Nameless Hero asking "WHAT IF I HAD STAYED IN ACADEMIA?" Steve (aka. Golden Boy) – Remarkably clever, sincere and "good boy". Steve has been in graduate school for two years and has already completed his thesis. In the lab hierarchy he is given more consideration than any of the post docs or research associates by Prof. Smith. He is extremely good in getting positive results and is always consulted by Prof. Smith for his opinion. His "good boy" image in comparison to the nameless hero is a running joke in the series. Allison – The sole female PhD student in Professor Smith's lab, which Smith and the other PhDs often forget to Allison's frustration. Unlike her labmates, she is not distracted by sporting events like the World Cup and proves to have some measure of athletic ability during the students vs. professors baseball match.
Faculty
Professor Jones – Cecilia's research advisor; a typical graduate school professor, although seemingly older and kinder than Prof. Smith. He is clueless in giving Cecilia advice on non-research related topics such as her love life and future career, and will ask for her help with small tasks such as changing the font size of footnotes, claiming it is urgent. Apparently the only reason he has time to see his wife is because he married his administrative assistant; before he received tenure, he had already been divorced three times. He has a daughter in 1st grade named Shelley,; Cham, Scooped!, p. 20. who is intelligent enough to fix Mike's work for him. Dr. Patrick Khumalo – An adjunct professor in the Anthropology Department's faculty, whom Tajel eventually marries. Tajel mistakes him for a first-year grad student when they first meet, possibly because she is older than he is.