Every applicant for such admission shall be a person of honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, truthfulness and one who appreciates and will adhere to a code of conduct for lawyers as adopted by the supreme court. The applicant shall have actually and in good faith pursued a regular course of study of the law and shall have graduated from some reputable law school. The application form shall not contain a recent photograph of the applicant. An applicant shall not be ineligible for registration because of age, citizenship, sex, race, religion, marital status or national origin although the application form may require citizenship information. The board may consider the past record of guilty pleas and convictions of public offenses of an applicant. Character references may be required; however, such references shall not be restricted to lawyers.