This qualitative study examines the perceptions of education doctoral students and graduates in two upper Midwest research universities in the United States concerning their experiences of thriving during the transition to independent researchers. Thriving is a multi-faceted construct that describes positive human functioning and development. Twelve participants, four doctoral graduates and eight active doctoral candidates in the discipline of education, participated in a semi-structured interview conversation that resulted in the data utilized for this study. The data was carefully organized and analyzed by the study research questions. The study was guided by a central research question and four sub-research questions. Informed by a phenomenology methodology and a process of interpretive analysis participants experiences were synthesized and discussed using their actual expressions. In reading and reflecting on the data, significant statements that provided the understanding of how participants experience thriving as they transition to independent researchers were identified. These significant statements were useful in developing clusters of meaning about what shapes study participants’ experience of thriving in the doctoral learning context. From the analysis of data, four emergent themes: Digging-in, Commitment, Supportive relationships, and Persistence, offers the knowledge and major understanding concerning how participants experienced thriving during the transition to independent researchers, and overall, during their doctoral journey. The knowledge from this study is useful for promoting thriving of doctoral students in education and other related disciplines. It offers insights, experiences, and proactive initiatives for thriving during doctoral students’ transitions to independent researchers.