Doctoral student socialization is the process through which emerging scholars are inducted into their academic disciplines and the academic profession. Recent doctoral student socialization literature has expanded upon traditional notions of the process to re-conceptualize it as multidirectional and complex. This study contributes to further enriching the doctoral student socialization framework by positing doctoral student agency as central to this process. Utilizing doctoral student voices, the study documents how doctoral students exercise agency through engaging dissertation advisors and other faculty, enlisting peers, and owning their status as scholars. Given continued calls to improve doctoral education, understanding the role doctoral students play in their own socialization is critical--both for doctoral students and for the faculty who participate in educating them.