So, I worked at a major American university that (years back) had to remove SSN from all of their databases; it was a major project. The exceptions were relate

So, I worked at a major American university that (years back) had to remove SSN from all of their databases; it was a major project. The exceptions were related to cases where they get something monetary (e.g. cash scholarship, student jobs, etc.) that requires reporting that income to the federal government, which wants the SSN. Generally, it is actually LESS common to require SSN now than 20 years ago; when I was an undergrad, exam grades would get posted by SSN on a public bulletin board (the idea being you could find your own, but you wouldn't know anyone else's SSN to look up their grade). So SSN was considered less sensitive than your grade on a single ordinary exam.