Customer Reviews

Scooped! The Third Piled Higher and Deeper Comic Strip Collection

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I discovered Jorge Cham's online comic strip (which also appears in many campus newspapers) by accident and took to it immediately. Despite being out of graduate school a couple of decades, it all rings true (with a small exaggeration here and there). I bought the first two collections and my son grabbed them and devoured them. At eleven, he knows more about qualifying exams than Regents' exams (which high school students have to take here in New York), which is a little scary.

This book is Cham's third collection and he still does it. The comics are original, the art is quite good and he threw in his illustrated journal from his tours around the country.

There are only two drawbacks to the strip: it can scare you out of going to grad school and if you do go, reading it can occupy so much of your time that it will delay your completing your thesis.

PhD comics is a must-have for all graduate students, and is enjoyable even if your experience in academic life is limited.

With this third volume, the artwork gets better and better, even though the b/w printing doesn't do justice to the online full color versions.

With Mike's graduation in volume 2, his appearances get less frequent, which is a pity.

The final part of the volume includes the "tales from the field" account of the author's promotional tour spanning more than 50 universities.

If you are (or were) a grad student: this is (or was) your life. Cham captures the trials of adult studentdom with warmth and startling precision. That existence combines many elements. Chronic cashlessness comes high on that list, leading to things like a diet of "what's on sale" ramen and goodies scrounged from snack trays at meetings. Academic esoterica run a close second, bringing an array of feelings that most people don't associate with the coolly intellectual pursuit of science. Somewhere up there we find the usual frustrations that come from a social life largely foiled by the first two.

Cham ends this study with a cartoon diary of his book-signing tour. Of course, the students themselves came out in droves to support the resident artist in their wide-spread community. Wives and husbands came too, and left with the startling realization that they're not alone, that others have grad students just as strange as their own. I guess that's really what distinguishes Ph&D from other anthropological studies like Dilbert: the real warmth and sympathy that come through, even while Cham invites us to have a good laugh at ourselves.

-- wiredweird

Excellent book; compilation of the strips from the online website - reflects very accurately the life of most grad students.

I rated this item with four, because I cannot give it four and a half. If you have ever been in grad school, and pick this book, you'll laugh a lot. Nevertheless, I read them in order, and every artist knows that you cannot keep it too high for too long.

With this I mean, it is great, but it turn out to me a little less enjoyable than the previous two books. Jorge sacrifies humor for critic at some points, and it's a bit repetitive, at least if you read the other two books witin a few days of reading this one.

Still, I will for sure buy a fourth book from this series!

It is a great comic about our (PhD) life!! I am a fan since the first chapter.

This third collection of PhD Comics is excellent. Excellent artwork, excellent jokes, never aging topics like procrastination, low wages and suffering are covered in a entertaining fashion. Indeed a good source of distraction. Recommended for grad-students. The copy I got had some repeated pages, but that is good! I got twice the fun for the same price :D.

This book continues showing us in a manner of a comic the sad story of most grad students all around the world.
This time we can see more about Prof. Smith (even flashbacks from his past), more about life in the lab, the never-ending hours in front of the computer by Cecilia, and Mike, his family and the remarkable event of submitting his dissertation.

This third one is not as funny as the previous two, but contains more stories about PIs.