Transcript Maker allows entry of your student’s SSN (Social Security Number), but is this truly required for a high school transcript? The answer is no. This field is completely optional. Generally, colleges or universities will request the student’s SSN as part of the application process, but the SSN doesn’t typically need to be included on the transcript itself.

Colleges use the SSN to determine if your student has any scholarships or other financial aid that need to be applied to their account. Once your student has been accepted, they will be issued a student ID number which can be used instead of the SSN for future communication. This is preferable since the SSN is a sensitive piece of information and should be kept private.

The bottom line is that the SSN doesn’t need to be on your transcript unless the college specifically requests it. If you choose to add your student’s SSN to the transcript, the 128-bit SSL encryption used by Transcript Maker ensures the SSN won’t be intercepted while your computer is communicating with our server. Transcript Maker also performs additional encryption of the SSN before storing it in our database. The SSN is only decrypted when the transcript is printed or downloaded.