ABOUT US

1. Graduate students at UW-Whitewater enter post-baccalaureate programs prepared to function as self-motivated and independent learners. Graduate students draw upon their foundational knowledge, maturity and greater self-understanding of their professional goals.
2. Graduate study at UW-Whitewater is designed to meet appropriate professional learning outcomes. Coursework integrates advanced content, an examination of professional practice, and reflection upon experiences derived in practicum, clinical and/or field settings.
3. Graduate students at UW-Whitewater engage in more complex ways with disciplinary content through analysis, synthesis, evaluation, reflection and application than at the undergraduate level. When graduate work serves an introductory function, the work will be more extensive and covered at an accelerated pace in comparison to undergraduate work in order to facilitate full engagement with more advanced theory and practice.
4. Graduate students at UW-Whitewater are expected to understand and apply abstract concepts and integrate new information into a broader and, in particular, a deeper knowledge base. They have a greater ability to synthesize concepts and skills taught in a single course as well as across the program curriculum.
5. Graduate coursework at UW-Whitewater requires greater depth of engagement with more specialized disciplinary content, which in turn requires higher expectations for academic and intellectual attainment.
6. Graduate study at UW-Whitewater engages students more frequently and more fully with the scholarly and professional research of the discipline, and focuses on primary source materials and graduate-level texts where appropriate.
7. Graduate faculty at UW-Whitewater often have more frequent and personal contact with graduate students, entering into mentor relationships which support a transition into professional practice and/or career advancement.
8. Graduate study at UW-Whitewater draws more frequently on students’ experiences. As a result, course discussions and projects often foster collaborative approaches to advanced understanding of professional challenges and/or contexts.
9. Graduate study at UW-Whitewater requires more intense and sustained evaluative experiences, including self-reflection, frequent peer feedback, and detailed formative and summative assessment associated with specific professional or accreditation standards and/or capstone experiences.

1. Advanced abilities in gathering, investigating, documenting, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating, and synthesizing complex information from the discipline and its practice.
2. Ability to apply discipline-specific skills (e.g., procedures, techniques, craft, technology and tool use) and knowledge (e.g., ideas, problems, concepts, vocabulary, history and theory of the discipline) to real-world contexts.
3. Highly developed functional skills and behaviors necessary for maturing professionals including self-direction, problem-solving, decision-making, collaboration, and the capacity for networking and leadership.
4. Writing skills that reflect advanced practice in professional contexts.
5. Effective oral communication and interpersonal skills that support successful interaction with colleagues and professionally relevant constituents.
6. A capacity to recognize ethical challenges relevant to disciplinary practice and the ability to articulate and justify a professional response.
7. The ability to understand and respond effectively to the diverse interests and needs of domestic and global colleagues and constituents served by the discipline and its practice.
8. Recognition of the need for continuous professional development through self-directed learning and on-going engagement with colleagues and other professionals.

Outstanding Capstone Award
This award is given annually to a master’s degree student who completes a distinguished capstone project that is judged to make a significant advancement to knowledge, technique, or creative expression in their professional field. Winners are competitively selected by a panel of graduate faculty evaluators with representation from each of the four academic colleges.

Past winners:

• 2024 — Greta (Wollmer) Barrett, School Psychology: “Classroom Factors that Support Students’ Sense of Belonging”
• 2023 — Colleen Tillis, School Psychology: “Improving Students’ Visual Spatial and Math Reasoning Skills in the Early Childhood Classroom with Weekly Teacher Video Training”
• 2022 — Kimberly Van Wiepz, Special Education: “Increasing Communication Initiations through Functional Communication Training”

Outstanding Dissertation
This award is given annually to a doctoral degree student who completes a distinguished dissertation that is judged to make a significant advancement to knowledge, technique, or creative expression in their professional field. Winners are competitively selected by a panel of graduate faculty evaluators with representation from each of the four academic colleges.

Past winners:

• 2024 — Tobin Anderson, Business Administration: “Towards a Theory of Consumer Gratitude: Studies on the Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Consumer Gratitude”
• 2023 — Deborah Beyer, Business Administration: “Market Volatility Amidst Political Conflict and Uncertainty”

Outstanding Thesis
This award is given to a master’s degree student who completes a distinguished basic or applied research project leading to a master’s thesis that is judged to make a significant advancement to knowledge, technique, or creative expression in their professional field. Winners are competitively selected by a panel of graduate faculty evaluators with representation from each of the four academic colleges.

Past winners:

• 2022 — Daniel Szelogowski, Computer Science: “Deep Learning for Musical Form: Recognition and Analysis”
• 2016 — Kyle Schwarm, Communication: “Parents’ Predisposition for Four-Year Colleges as Discerned by their Children”
• 2014 — Hans Hauschild, Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health: “Rear Facing Child Restraint Device Performance in Side Impact Crash”
• 2012 — Shauna Wessely, Communication: “The Fat is in the Fire: An Inquiry into Fatness, the Third-Person Effect, and Empathy”
• 2010 — Kristin Froemming, Communication: “Listen Up! You’re Tuning Out!: Emotional Triggers that Serve as Listening Barriers in Senior Populations”

Dissertation guidelines [PDF] »

Graduate academic policies and procedures »

Student handbook »

Student responsibility for absence reports and make-ups »

Thesis guidelines [PDF] »

Transfer credit policy
Within the 12 credit transfer limit, courses completed at other institutions may be transferred to UW-Whitewater for application towards a graduate degree, subject to the following conditions:

• The institution offering the course must hold regional accreditation at the graduate level.
• The course must be listed as a graduate-level course on the student's transcript from the offering institution.
• The course should be relevant to a graduate degree program at the offering institution.
• The course must align with the student's proposed graduate degree program at UW-Whitewater.
• The course cannot be a correspondence course or taught in a format less rigorous than UW-Whitewater's standards.
• A minimum grade of B (3.00) must have been earned in the course.

Additionally, both graduate coursework from UW-Whitewater and those accepted from other accredited institutions must meet the time-based educational requirements based on the Carnegie Unit: a minimum of sixteen contact hours, along with at least 32 hours of student preparation and out-of-class activity per credit.

Program code of conduct template*

• Social Work
• Clinical Mental Health Counselors
• School Counselors [PDF]
• Communication Sciences and Disorders
• School Psychology

*These programs have additional codes of conduct to follow. Review specific programs’ handbooks for their official policy. The appeal process begins at section 7 of the Program Code of Conduct document.