Question

[neil32]

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[PsyDuck90]

This would definitely be seen as a red flag at my site. Have you not been supervised by psychologists in your practicums? If you haven’t been, that will likely be a much bigger factor impacting your ability to match. Supervision should be primarily with licensed psychologists with only some hours coming from allied health professionals, if any.

 

[WisNeuro]

Definitely would have been a red flag at my sites as well.

 

[psych.meout]

Why are you including references from providers who are not psychologists? Were these people supervising you for practicum? Was there no psychologist supervising you for these rotations?

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I agree, as a reviewer, it would look odd to have letters from non-psychologists. Especially more than one letter.

 

[neil32]

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[psych.meout]

How many practicum sites will you have trained at before you apply for internship? Were there any doctoral level psychologists at these sites?

Separate from the references issue, I don't think you can count hours that were not supervised by a doctoral level psychologist in some manner. Have you asked your DCT about this?

I would have references from just psychologists, if possible. If it's not possible, it seems like there may be larger problems that will affect your competitiveness.

 

[neil32]

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[AcronymAllergy]

A school psychologist would probably look better than other masters-level providers, although with your career goals (i.e., not specifically school psychology), it still looks odd. I also agree that I'd double-check with APPIC and your DCT that the hours supervised by a master's-level school psychologist can actually count toward your application.

 

[PsyNeuro37]

Just to add some additional context to why there could be concern, one of the things a letter of rec would potentially speak to is your readiness for internship. Individuals who are not psychologists would be less qualified to comment on what that might look like as they have not completed an APPIC internship themselves.

Additionally, from my own anecdotal experiences on a handful of internship selection committees, decisions are often having to be made with incomplete or limited information. What we have to go off of is a CV, some essays, and some recommendations from people we likely do not personally know. With any sort of ambiguous information, I have seen assumptions get made that may or may not always be accurate/fair. Not having letters of rec from psychologists, which would be different than the individuals you would be competing against, would be an example of ambiguous information that could invite assumptions.

 

[tn15an]

Hi all, I'll be submitting APPIC applications next year for fall 2027 and have a few questions about references. For those of you who evaluate applications, how much does the inclusion of references from individuals who are not psychologists negatively impact a person's chance of an interview, or chance of being selected overall? Two of my three references will likely be a masters level clinicians (therapist and nurespractitioner). Will this be seen as any sort of red flag, assuming the references are strong?

Of all the applications I have reviewed I have never seen one where a letter came from a non psychologist. So it would certainly stand out. I am confused how you could be struggling to get enough letters from psychologists since your supervisors at practicum should all be psychologists. If you are somehow being supervised by a non psychologist something has gone very wrong in your training program. So if I saw a letter from a non psychologist I would assume it is due to you being unable to get a strong letter from your actual supervisors.

 

[WisNeuro]

Letter from your faculty mentor should be one letter, then 2 letters from doctoral level psychologists who have supervised you. If that's not the case, things look a bit weird, and unless the rest of the application is stellar, that could sink it for me.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

As a 4th/supplemental letter, maybe, but I’d def expect a letter from your mentor and two clinical supervisors.

 

[R. Matey]

If the OP is a school psychology PhD student, sites with school psych foci may weigh the MS/EDS letter differently. That being said, I do agree that all of your letters should come from doctoral-level psychologists who have supervised you in some capacity.

 

[ClinicalABA]

Separate from the references issue, I don't think you can count hours that were not supervised by a doctoral level psychologist in some manner. Have you asked your DCT about this?

This can vary across jurisdictions. To count as advanced practica for licensure purposes in my state (MA), there must be an on-site at all times (not just via phone) a supervisor who is a licensed psychologist, board certified psychiatrist, or licensed independent social worker. In this case, your practica that were supervised by the Nurse Practitioner and masters in school psych would likely not count towards the required supervised experience for licensure.

 

[psych.meout]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I may be misunderstanding your posts, but it seems like you're applying for internship next fall in 2026 to start in 2027, correct? And you'll only have 2 practica done by then or did I misread that and you have more than 2 practicum rotations but the others would have been without a licensed psychologist supervisor?

If the former, does that mean you'll be applying for internship at the beginning of your 4th year?

Regardless, I think @GregK would be good to tag in to address the issue of whether you can count hours for APPIC when they were supervised by a master's level school psychologist or other mid-level provider.

This can vary across jurisdictions. To count as advanced practica for licensure purposes in my state (MA), there must be an on-site at all times (not just via phone) a supervisor who is a licensed psychologist, board certified psychiatrist, or licensed independent social worker. In this case, your practica that were supervised by the Nurse Practitioner and masters in school psych would likely not count towards the required supervised experience for licensure.

I was only referring to counting hours (especially F2F) for internship apps and hadn't even thought about licensure implications. That could be problematic as well and take OP longer to get licensed depending on their state.

 

[ClinicalABA]

I was only referring to counting hours (especially F2F) for internship apps and hadn't even thought about licensure implications. That could be problematic as well and take OP longer to get licensed depending on their state.

Yeah- that would be the bigger concern for me. They would need 3200 total hours to be license eligible. 1600 has to be from an organized "health services training formal internship (e.g., APPIC internship), and the other 1600 must be in an appropriate Health Services Setting with supervision, and 1/2 of the total supervision must be provided by a psychologist. Mass regs are pretty representative of licensure laws (they are definitely not extreme). I'm also Licensed in CT, where a new applicant would need only 1800 hours, all supervised by a Licensed Psychologist, so things do differ. It would suck to not have flexibility in licensure. When I was faculty at a pre-doctoral internship, we would not consider an applicant who was non-licensed in our state. Many pre-docs went on to be post-docs and/or employees, so license eligibility barriers just not worth it.

 

[cara susanna]

When I was in grad school and the only on-site licensed clinicians were Masters level, we received on-site supervision from one of those clinicians, but we also were provided additional supervision off-site by our dept clinic supervisor. These were additional experiences, not formal practica, but I was able to count it on my APPI.

 

[psych.meout]

When I was in grad school and the only on-site licensed clinicians were Masters level, we received on-site supervision from one of those clinicians, but we also were provided additional supervision off-site by our dept clinic supervisor. These were additional experiences, not formal practica, but I was able to count it on my APPI.

Same. I had some advanced training experiences where the supervisor wasn't a psychologist (often a psychiatrist or other physician but sometimes SW, etc) but I always had supervision with a licensed psychologist elsewhere on site or back at my doctoral program. These were a small minority of all my clinical experience, but they were qualitatively different and more advanced than what many other students get and added quite a bit to my overall CV and to my fit with internship sites.

 

[oliversacks4thewin]

At a competitive pediatric AMC here and on the committee who selects and interviews applicants: huge red flag.

 

[psych.meout]

Of all the applications I have reviewed I have never seen one where a letter came from a non psychologist. So it would certainly stand out. I am confused how you could be struggling to get enough letters from psychologists since your supervisors at practicum should all be psychologists. If you are somehow being supervised by a non psychologist something has gone very wrong in your training program. So if I saw a letter from a non psychologist I would assume it is due to you being unable to get a strong letter from your actual supervisors.

That's the same assumption I would make and consistent with what all of my supervisors have said about their experiences reviewing applications at multiple internship sites, including VAs and AMCs.

Unless I was wrong earlier about OP applying next fall at the beginning of their 4th year, this could be rectified by taking an additional year to get more clinical experience under a psychologist and applying at the beginning of 5th year.