As part of the Incoming Pharm.D. Student Onboarding process for the UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, all admitted students are required to undergo a criminal background check through the Certiphi Screening Centralized Criminal Background Check Program. This screening is a critical step in ensuring that students can meet the requirements of clinical education sites and fulfill the necessary qualifications to become licensed pharmacists.
Failure to complete the background check will result in your admissions offer being rescinded.
For additional information, visit the PharmCAS website and review the After You Submit webpage, specifically the "Criminal Background Checks" section.
- Overview
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Once you accept our offer of admission, Certiphi Screening, Inc. will automatically send an email to the address associated with your PharmCAS application. This email will provide access to a secure online form, which you must complete to provide basic identifying information and consent for the report to be procured. A fee of $72.70 will be charged by Certiphi Screening, Inc. for this service. Please note that our school does not offer fee waivers, and any inquiries about payment should be directed to Certiphi Screening, Inc.
If you haven't received an email, please check your spam/junk folders. If you're still unable to find it, contact Certiphi's support team at studentscreening@certiphi.com for assistance in accessing the form.
If you have previously accepted an offer of admission to another program and received a Certiphi email, you will not receive a new email from us. The original email must be used to access the secure online form. Upon accepting our offer of admission, our school will have access to the report you have already submitted.
- Instructions and Deadlines
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Once you provide consent, Certiphi will procure a national background check on you. Once the report is complete, Certiphi will send an email requesting that you review the report prior to its distribution.
Upon receiving this email, you must complete the following steps:
- Within ten (10) calendar days, review your report.
- If you do not review your report during this time, it will be distributed to our program after the ten (10) days elapse. We strongly recommend reviewing your report promptly, as you may encounter inaccuracies that you will need to address immediately. Failure to review your report could result in significant delays in the reporting process and negatively impact your onboarding with our school.
- If the report is accurate, release the report to allow our program to review its contents and complete our final assessment of the onboarding task.
- If the report contains inaccuracies, you will have the opportunity to contest the accuracy within the specified ten (10) calendar day period. The report will not be released to our program until any potential inaccuracies have been resolved.
The deadline to complete this task will depend on when you accepted your offer of admission:
Month Admissions Offer Received Corresponding Deadline November - December Friday, January 16, 2026 January - March Friday, April 10, 2026 April or later To be provided on an individual basis - Within ten (10) calendar days, review your report.
- Next Steps and Support
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Once the report is accurate, reviewed and released by you, a representative of our program will review its contents. We will contact you when we have completed our review to either notify you of satisfaction of the onboarding task or if there are any issues requiring your attention. We will do our best to assist you with resolving any issues that may arise; however, depending on the situation, our ability to intervene or resolve complex issues may be limited.
The contents of your background check report will be handled with confidentiality and protected in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Only a limited number of authorized program representatives will have access to the report. In the event that we need to share information with other school personnel, such as members of school leadership or student services, we will limit disclosure to only those individuals who have a legitimate business need to know. We take the protection of your personal information seriously and will handle it in a confidential and secure manner.