What some previous students had to say about Residency
Residency is an important portion of the doctoral program at WSU.
The onsite residency portion of the program serves as a cornerstone for fostering deep collaboration between doctoral cohorts, WSU faculty, and staff. The carefully structured mix of joint activities, such as the welcoming dinner cruise on the Mississippi River aboard the Cal Fremling and shared campus tours, creates natural opportunities for students from different cohorts to connect beyond their immediate peer groups. These shared experiences, combined with collaborative survey and writing project and peer editing workshops, break down barriers between cohort years and establish lasting professional relationships. The face-to-face interactions during meals, team-building activities, and informal moments throughout the week allow students to form meaningful connections that sustain collaboration throughout their doctoral journey and into their professional careers. Generally, students are introduced to between 25 and 30 faculty members during the week, who are all potential future collaborators and dissertation committee members.
The residency’s emphasis on presentation skills development is evident through multiple structured opportunities for students to practice and refine their communication abilities. Senior cohort students deliver dissertation topic presentations to gather group feedback on how to improve their topics prior to drafting their proposal. Junior cohort students present a brief potential topic presentation, providing substantial practice in articulating their research ideas to an academic audience and gathering feedback about how they might refine their ideas.. These presentations occur in a supportive environment where students receive immediate feedback from faculty and peers, allowing them to develop confidence and polish their delivery before high-stakes situations. The residency often includes an actual dissertation defense or proposal defense, giving students exposure to the format and expectations they will eventually face.
Perhaps most importantly, the intensive nature of the residency, spanning seven days with activities from early morning through evening, mirrors the collaborative and demanding environment students will encounter throughout their doctoral studies. The program’s structure, which includes everything from technical sessions on survey tools and qualitative coding to wellness-focused discussions on mental health and self-care, demonstrates that successful doctoral work requires both individual expertise and strong teamwork capabilities. The shared challenges of navigating research methods workshops, participating in peer editing sessions, and engaging with library resources create a foundation of mutual support that extends far beyond the residency week. This immersive experience transforms a geographically dispersed cohort into a genuine learning community, equipped with both the technical skills and interpersonal connections necessary for doctoral success.
Additionally, the Residency students collaborate each year to write a book-length set of essays on a topic of general impact on education. Previous editions of the Residency texts are available through WSU’s digital depository, Open River.