Is having a BCBA as a rec frowned upon by School Psych?

[Gradyouwait90]

I am interested in pursuing School/Clinical Psychology doctorate programs. I have some professors and research lab PIs I can use, and have used in the past. However, I have been working in Applied Behavior Analysis in a clinical setting for over a year now, with ages varying between 2 and 18. I have been supervised by 3 BCBAs and they can speak to my passion for working with kids, especially with behavioral problems, ability to build rapport, my scientific mindset, attention to details, etc. Would it be frowned upon to have one of the BCBAs, who owns the facility, to be a letter of recommendation? Or do I need to just stick with research PIs and past professors? Thanks in advance!

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[schoolpsy21]

I think that it's totally fine to get a BCBA recommendation, as long as you have other recommendations to speak to your research skills by a professor(s) you have done research with. However, if you are applying to very research based programs, it might be better to get all recs from research PIs. Note: I'm not sure how clinical programs would feel about this, but school programs would probably be okay.

 

[Chalupacabra]

Yeah, I think it would be fine. It would also give a wider representation of your skill set than just talking about research abilities, which could be advantageous.

 

[Gradyouwait90]

Thanks for the replies. I certainly feel like they could give much insight into thing that professors wouldn't be privy. A lot of the time the applications specify professors as their required sources for letters. I'll find out if I can substitute these for any. Thanks for the input, everyone! And if anyone else has something to say, it is more than welcome.