Secret Security Clearance and academic transcript?

March 18, 2009 3:26 PM

Security Clearance: Will they check my academic transcript too?

I will be graduating from college in a few months but I was recently hired for a position that requires a secret level security clearance. For the clearance, will they mostly stick to checking my criminal records? Or will they also delve into my academic transcript to see what classes I took, what grades I got, overall gpa, etc? And will they share it with my future employer.
Is that failed Calculus course going to come back and haunt me? I have no intentions of lying on the application, but I hate for it to be rejected for other reasons.

posted by nikkorizz to Law & Government (15 answers total)

As a college instructor, I've had federal agents see me to discuss the background of my former students. In at least one case, this was simply for federal employment, not even a security clearance. If they go so far as to interview former professors, I'm sure they'll look at your transcripts. The standard form for national security positions certainly has a waiver that you have to sign allowing them to look into your academic background. Even if you're not being hired by the federal government, I assume the form for a security clearance is basically the same. Have you seen the form you need to fill out for the clearance yet?

I have no idea if a single failed course will sink you, but that doesn't sound likely. But how is it that your future employer hasn't seen your transcript/gpa?
posted by NormieP at 3:41 PM on March 18, 2009

In short: no.

I was talking to a coworker about the process just yesterday, and he told me what the Investigative Services guy told him - at this level (Secret), they're basically checking that a) you're mentally sound, and b) it's not possible to blackmail you.

The implications of that are that a few minor transgressions in your younger years are not going to prevent you from getting a job.
posted by backseatpilot at 3:42 PM on March 18, 2009

As someone familiar with the process, the way it works at the secret level, is they are checking for red flags (mental health, drug use, debt, civil judgements, non US relatives, arrest record). If you have none of these, the odds are that they will not be concerned with grades etc. Remember this is a security form not a job application. Tell the truth and if you have no other skeletons in your closet you'll be fine.
posted by Xurando at 3:49 PM on March 18, 2009

I interviewed with the CIA a couple years ago, and they did ask to see my grad school transcripts. But, it was for a job that required a Master's degree so I think it was just to confirm that I had the degree.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 3:58 PM on March 18, 2009

Response by poster: NormieP: The HR lady never asked for my gpa before the interview, it wasn't until I was hired that I found out the company wanted someone with a gpa that's 3.0+, and mines actually a little bit below that. I've been hired under the condition that I get a security clearance, but I'm kind of hoping the people who do the background checks don't pass my gpa along to my employer.
posted by nikkorizz at 4:01 PM on March 18, 2009

They will look at your transcripts, but they don't care if you failed calculus. They want to make sure you aren't lying about that or anything else.
posted by Sidhedevil at 4:30 PM on March 18, 2009

Just worry about the lying. I do security clearance cases. I've had transcript cases, but they have only been about false statements.
posted by Ironmouth at 4:30 PM on March 18, 2009

I work at a national lab and, at my company, it matters. They have my undergrad and graduate GPA's. They were part of my hiring package, and both were required before I was hired. Your GPA follows you here for your entire career at the lab. I've never worked anywhere else where it was a factor.

Interns here are paid according to their GPAs, so their salary can depend on a good GPA.

I wonder if it's moot if you've signed the hiring paperwork already.
posted by answergrape at 4:50 PM on March 18, 2009

Response by poster: answergrape: Did you submit your transcript separately or did they check it during the clearance check?
posted by nikkorizz at 5:06 PM on March 18, 2009

Response by poster: From what I'd heard about clearance checks, it's pretty much all or nothing. But if someone else that looks at my gpa, someone that doesn't work for the security clearance people, I'm hoping I can plead my case.
posted by nikkorizz at 5:10 PM on March 18, 2009

I really wouldn't worry about it that much - if your company hired you without asking for your gpa and you didn't know that's what they wanted, then it doesn't seem like something they'd rescind the offer for. In my opinion as a hiring manager, fit matters a lot more than GPA (of course if you're applying for a job as a mathematician, that's a different story).

As for the investigation itself, I think it depends on where you are trying to get your clearance through. It may have changed in the past few years (I know they were trying to change anyway), but it used to be that different agencies used different investigators. Regardless, I think that as long as you are honest about everything, the investigators won't care if you failed a class, because you did still make it through college. So if they ask you if you ever failed a class, say yes. If it helps, I know a guy that had done cocaine socially a fair amount as recently as a year prior to applying for a Top Secret clearance - he was totally up front with them about it, and he still got the clearance. I think it took a bit longer as they were more thorough with the investigation than they would've been otherwise, but he did get the TS.

Seriously, don't sweat it.
posted by echo0720 at 7:45 PM on March 18, 2009

I submitted my transcripts to the lab, not to the clearance investigators. It was a separate process and it became part of the "hiring package" where my boss built a case for why I made a good lab employee. And it was a very big deal; I'm pretty sure that if my GPA wasn't as high as it was, it would have been hard to get my hiring approved. I was hired after they saw all my transcripts (undergrad and grad) but contingent upon receiving my clearance, which I didn't get till almost a year later.

I don't recall having to submit transcripts for my clearance.
posted by answergrape at 8:24 PM on March 18, 2009

But if someone else that looks at my gpa, someone that doesn't work for the security clearance people, I'm hoping I can plead my case.

Plead what case? To whom? Aren't you already hired? If your transcript was important to anyone who was involved in the hiring process, they would have asked for it then.

The security folks aren't going to tattle on you about your having failed calculus. That's not their job. They're checking your transcript to make sure you haven't falsified your personal history.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:33 PM on March 18, 2009

If the people who hired you were interested in your transcript, they would've asked you for it. They wouldn't be relying on the investigators to find that information for them. The investigators don't care that you failed Calculus, and wouldn't be reporting it to your future employer.
posted by lullaby at 10:30 PM on March 18, 2009

The people who decide if you are qualified care about your grades. The people doing security clearances don't. They want to see if there is anything in your past, or present, that presents a potential security threat.
posted by justcorbly at 6:10 AM on March 19, 2009