I still remember my undergrad student number at the University of Toronto: 790-XXX-XXX. (Where Xs replace the actual numbers, for privacy’s sake.)
I cannot recall my student number at the University of Alberta, where I earned a degree in law, however.
Do you recall your student number(s) from any degree?
I do, but I won’t be posting it 
Why specifically Canadian university graduates, @Spoons? I assume other countries also use student numbers.
I do remember my student number at the University of Ottawa, even though I haven’t studied there since 2006. I guess it’s because our student number was our username for the university’s online system, so I typed it often. I thought I’d forgotten my student number from the Université de Sherbrooke (2007-2013), but I was able to recall it as well.
Not Canadian, but my student ID number from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the 1980s, was super-easy to remember (and I still remember it), because it was my Social Security Number, with an extra digit tacked on the end.
I’m pretty sure that they decided it was a bad idea to use SSNs that way at some point after then, and changed how they do student numbers. 
Interesting. As an American, I don’t even remember having a student ID number, though I’m sure I had one. I had an ID card. The number is not something I ever recall using. Is it something memorable in Canada and used often during studies?
Not necessarily. See, for example,
My American ex-wife attended, and graduated from, three US universities, and each time, her student number was her Social Security number. I found that strange–we would never use our Social Insurance Numbers in that way.
I went to two Canadian universities, and at each one, had a different student number. I did specify Canadian in the thread title, but I suppose other countries can contribute. It would be interesting to find out how other places do it.
No, not even close. I don’t even remember my student ID card, though I’m certain I must have had one. It was probably inscribed on papyrus or else chiseled into a rock that I carried around with me. I believe it was necessary to get into the “student union”, a building where you could drink and play pinball.
I cannot speak for everywhere; and certainly, my law school had anonymous exams. But I do recall that it was necessary on the front of every exam answer book at my undergrad university. So we all memorized them.
It took me a moment, but I paged my Waterloo student number back into memory. It’s a little less easy to remember than the phone number of my childhood home, but not much.
Yeah, I don’t recall ever writing down my number here in the US. I have some old “blue books” here (exam books for written questions, so-called, obviously, because of the color of the cover), and it’s just my name on it. The only time I remember pulling out my student ID – I’m pretty sure I have it somewhere – was to get into the libraries and buying snacks from the vending machines (they basically acted as a type of debit card within the university.) Probably for registering for classes, too.
I do recall when test scores were posted for my chemistry class, they were printed and taped up on the wall outside our lecture hall and anonymized by printing our full social security number (this was in '93-'94.)
Sure do. I also remember my social insurance number that I got the summer before I started university. That was almost 50 years ago. But I have trouble remembering what I did last weekend. Go figure.
Mine was my Social Security number, period. And for privacy’s sake, exam grades were posted outside of classrooms with your student number instead of your name. It’s damn lucky that the internet was still a mere babe in the mid-90s or it’d be real easy for some budding identity thief to just watch their classmates run a finger down the list of grades until they found their SSN and grade.
I recall both my Highschool Student Number (5 digits) (Class of '94) and my Undegrad Student Number (4 numbers later expanded to 9 by prepending with 0’s) (Class of '99). I can probably dig up my old student ID’s as well. The Uni one was easy as it was also the part of my pass code to enter the dorms.
-DF
I don’t remember either my graduate or undergraduate student numbers, but my grad school number would probably ring a bell if I heard it; I think University of Waterloo used my student number much more frequently than U of S did.
My wife continued to use her York U student number as an ID or password years after she graduated, so I bet she would remember that one.
We pretty much had to write it on everything, including exam booklets. So, yeah, being able to remember it made a difference.
And yeah, I can still remember mine. The first 3 digits are always easy - they’re based on the year you started, so mine was 870, having started in 1987.
AND they often posted grades in the hallway, “coded” by just showing the numbers and the grade (sharpie’d by an aging prof).
And, if you cared, you could easily figure someone’s number by which one they looked at (or even ran their finger across from number to grade).
“Hey, aren’t you 476-68-3841-4? How the hell did you fail that easy test?”
.
eta: rereading the thread, I see I’d missed elfkin477’s post, which is basically the same thing. So save time, read one or the other but not both.
I also mentioned it two posts before that one. Seems it was a rather common occurrence at them time, and not just a quirk of my school. As an aside, I also remember researching civil (perhaps bankruptcy – can’t remember exactly) court records at the time, and the social security numbers were not redacted.
My guess is that your SSN was your student identification number. I think there’s a certain amount of difficulty with “student id number” where it sounds like it’s a number on the student id when what is actually meant is the number used to identify you as a student. (which may or may not be on the actual identification card.) If your grades were posted with your SS number, chances are excellent that that was also your student numbers - it was common up until at least 2000 or so to use SS numbers as student ID numbers, employee numbers and for medical and insurance records. ETA : If the SS number was not the student number , the instructor wouldn’t need it and couldn’t use it to post your grade.
In any event, my college definitely used SS numbers as student numbers so of course I remember my student ID number , My husband still has his ID card circa 1985 ( don’t ask) from a different college/same university.- and his SS is handwritten on his card, just like his name is handwritten.
I still carry my student ID from University of Alaska Anchorage. Name, SSN and a truly awesome pic. (Long hair, gay biker 'stache and sunglasses.) Every college I ever attended used my SSN as my student number.
That sounds correct to me. I feel like there were numbers on the ID itself that were not my social security number, but I don’t believe that was ever used to identify me as a student. SSN sounds right.