# Canadian university graduates: Do you recall your student number? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2022, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-university-graduates-do-you-recall-your-student-number/960392 "2022-03-03T06:06:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2022, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-university-graduates-do-you-recall-your-student-number/960392/21 "2022-03-05T04:08:21Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > 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. Interesting. But yeah, maybe they don’t do this anymore. > [@Horatius](#): > > 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. This seems to be common for Quebec universities and colleges. My student number at the Université de Sherbrooke starts with ‘07’, since I was admitted in 2007, while my student number from college starts with ‘98’ (but I don’t remember the rest of that one). And I’m currently doing a distance education program at another Quebec university, where my student number starts with ‘20’, which I’ve just noticed is almost certainly because I started in 2020. Not the case for the University of Ottawa, though. My student number there is a seven-digit number starting with ‘23’. Most of my colleagues when I was a student there also had student numbers in that range, so I assume they issue them in increasing order. Some students who’d been there a long time had a student number only six digits long. By the end of my time at the University of Ottawa, I’d started seeing students with a student number starting with a ‘3’ and maybe even with a ‘4’. I assume they issue a number to everybody who applies, but I’m not sure the numbers are consecutive: I’m not convinced there can be a million applicants at the University of Ottawa within a period of a few years. As for writing one’s student number on all one’s work, I don’t ask this from my students, but I teach small classes. I did request it from my students at one of my previous jobs, after I had two students with the exact same name in one of my classes. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2022, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-university-graduates-do-you-recall-your-student-number/960392/22 "2022-03-05T12:11:57Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > Not the case for the University of Ottawa, though. My student number there is a seven-digit number starting with ‘23’. Most of my colleagues when I was a student there also had student numbers in that range, so I assume they issue them in increasing order. Some students who’d been there a long time had a student number only six digits long. By the end of my time at the University of Ottawa, I’d started seeing students with a student number starting with a ‘3’ and maybe even with a ‘4’. I assume they issue a number to everybody who applies, but I’m not sure the numbers are consecutive: I’m not convinced there can be a million applicants at the University of Ottawa within a period of a few years. They may have changed systems. Back when I attended university, Ontario at least had an integrated system for university applications, so everyone was assigned an application number, which as I said was based on the year. At least some schools just re-used your application number as your student number once you were accepted, which is what my school did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-university-graduates-do-you-recall-your-student-number/960392.md?page=1)