They need your SS# if they are paying you and need to withhold taxes. They don't need to do a credit check unless you are borrowing from them, which is unusual.

They need your SS# if they are paying you and need to withhold taxes. They don't need to do a credit check unless you are borrowing from them, which is unusual. For financial aid, if they want to verify your income, they can request that you have the IRS send them a transcript, which they will receive directly from the IRS with SS # redacted. The “need to be able to track your records through name changes” does not mean that they need your SS #. “They need your SSN”: Usually they do not, but US citizens have been trained to believe that they do. EDIT: It’s been a long time since I was in school, and, frankly, I was expecting someone with fresher knowledge to come up with a counter-example. So, see the comment above about an IRS form 1098-T.