Where are these school codes hiding?

Tommy Tran

Do you know the school code? Do you know your social security number? Do you know the code to the community college where you took summer courses? Are you confused yet?

When you fill out the applications for the SAT, ACT, or colleges, you will need to know all of these codes and numbers. According to the the College Board website, the high school code is a six digit code used for registering students for SATs and sending their scores to colleges and scholarship programs. So, where do you find this high school code?

According to head counselor Carlos Padilla, students can find the code in a few places: they can search the website collegeboard.org, or look on the wall of the counselors’ office, where it’s posted on a small piece of paper.

Since this code is important for many high school students, one might expect that everybody already knows that the Oakland High School code is 052225. But they don’t.

OHS junior Xiaodi Li said she didn’t know the code. Li said, “Probably the whole class doesn’t know.”

Assistant principal Anisa Rasheed said that she also didn’t know the code. Rasheed tried to search for it online through Google. Google took Rasheed to the OHS website, but the OHS website did not have the high school code. Rasheed commented that the code should be put on the OHS website under the senior section.

Activities director Amy Dellefield, who is also in charge of updating the OHS web site said that she needs to “have permission from Padilla” to add the code to the school website. Dellefield added, “I don’t know how public [the high school code] should be.”

According to Padilla the high school code is open to the public since it’s on the College Board website. Padilla said that he will call Dellefield about the high school code.

Padilla also stated that students aren’t required to give out their social security numbers for college applications. However, students will need a social security number to apply for federal financial aid. This poses a challenge for undocumented immigrant students.

Undocumented immigrants can get private financial aid for college. Undocumented immigrants can also apply for some grants and scholarships. The California Dream Act that Governor Jerry Brown signed this year will give undocumented students access to state financial aid starting in 2013. Undocumented students at OHS can seek financial aid information from their counselors as well.