The AAMC recommends that all U.S. medical schools procure a national background check on applicants upon their conditional acceptance to medical school. This is to ascertain the ability of accepted applicants to eventually become licensed physicians in the future, enhance the safety and well-being of patients, and ensure the public's continuing trust in the medical profession.
Medical schools that participate in the AAMC-facilitated Criminal Background Check Service may require applicants to undergo a separate national background check process, if required to do so by their own institutional regulations or by applicable state law. Medical schools that do not participate in this service may also require applicants to undergo a separate national background check.
Background Check Process
Certiphi Screening, Inc. will procure background reports for early decision program applicants once they are accepted and for all other applicants at the point of conditional acceptance, after January 1.
Once you have provided consent via email, Certiphi Screening, Inc. will procure a national background check on you. Once the report is complete, you will be able to review the report prior to its distribution to your designated medical schools. History including infractions and juvenile records will be included.
You will have ten (10) calendar days from the date you receive your background check report to review and mark it for release or contest its contents before it is made available to your designated, participating medical schools. If you do not contest the contents of this report, the final report will be distributed after this period elapses.
Participating Medical Schools
To determine if a school participates in the AAMC-facilitated Criminal Background Check Service, visit the AMCAS® Participating Medical Schools and Deadlines page. Note, that this list is subject to change.
The final report will be made available to the participating medical school(s) who offered you a conditional acceptance – either for early decision or after January 1 – or otherwise initiated the report for the background check report.
Certiphi will only release the report to requesting medical schools. Recipient medical schools may vary the content they review on the report, such as filtering out infractions or juvenile records.
Obtain a Personal Copy
You may obtain a personal copy of the preliminary background report prior to your ten (10) calendar day review period described above by visiting Application Station and entering the code CERTAP2026. If you choose to order a preliminary background report, the discounted cost is $71, plus any international research fees. For more information contact Certiphi Screening's Applicant Services team at (800) 803-9582 or ApplicantServices@certiphi.com.
Note a personal copy of the preliminary background report is optional. It does not replace the final report distributed to requesting medical schools by Certiphi.