At first I was insulted to hear this term referring to the Ph.D. degree. Then I decided to reframe and own the phrase as reflecting my life at 52 years -- full of experiences, rich in relationships, and now achieving a dream. Ah, yes. Sometimes my own depth startles me. But at the end of my first semester, the true meaning is unromantically clear: "Piled High and Deep" refers to the astronomical stack of books and articles I will have to plow through in order to finish. Oy!