When are criminal background checks performed?

higheredrocks
Wed, 02 Dec 2015 16:28:23 +0000

Many years ago, I was a student conduct director and our office responded to the background check inquiries. I actually don’t ever remember seeing a request from a graduate program (just law and med schools; jobs requiring FBI clearance, and education schools also do them because of classroom practicas involving minors). Having said that, I’m very confident that even the most competitive law and med programs wouldn’t care about an old underage drinking offense and I very much doubt a PhD program would either. However, everyone cares about lying – disclose it, say it’s being expunged and move on.