Importing Student Data

email_address

*Required

*Can't be blank

The basic identifier for each user in Handshake. This must be unique for each user — meaning that the same email cannot be tied to two student accounts. As a security measure, the .edu domain must belong to your institution. If your students do not use .edu emails, you can use a generic (.gmail.com, etc) address.

username

*Required

*Can't be blank

This MUST be unique and should never change for each student. This serves as the “anchor” in imports so that other sensitive fields (such as email) can be updated around this value. Most schools will use a student’s school ID number. This should NOT match any part of a student’s email_address, or their cardID, as both fields are subject to change (due to last name changes, lost ID cards, etc.).

auth_identifier
*Required

Required if using SSO. This will be used to check against the returned attribute from SSO systems to authenticate students. Students will not enter this value on login; this is a background identifier attribute. This value CAN match their email_address value, or part of it, if necessary.

Learn more about Setting up SSO in Handshake

first_name

*Required

*Can't be blank

Student's first name

school_year_name
*Required

This field is where you can enter the exact school year that a student is currently in. Here are the different values you can include in this field. Please note the capitalization and spelling must match exactly.

Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
First Year Community / Technical College
Second Year Community / Technical College
Certificate Program
Masters
Masters of Business Administration
Accelerated Masters
Doctorate 
Postdoctoral Studies 
Alumni

Learn more about School Year Options in Handshake

primary_education:cumulative_gpa
*Required

This is the student's cumulative GPA at your school. This has to be a value between 0 and 4 with no more than 2 hundredths (example: 2.75).

primary_education:major_names

*Required

This is the name of the major(s) that this student has declared, and will populate the "majors" field on a student's profile (note: there's a limit of 255 characters per major). The formatting for these majors must be capital case, with all caps used only for abbreviated program designations (i.e., BS Physics; BA Art History). You can upload more than one major for a student by separating each major with a semicolon (i.e. Biology;Chemistry). This is the only field that can be used to populate majors in Handshake via the Importer.

primary:education_level_name
*Required

This will describe the degree/education level of a student. It appears on student profiles to tell people what level of education they're currently pursuing.  Here are the different values you can include in this field. Please note the capitalization and spelling must match exactly.

Associates
Certificate
Advanced Certificate
Bachelors
Masters
Doctorate
Postdoctoral Studies
Non-Degree Seeking
Technical Diploma

Student's middle name.

Student's last name.

Student's preferred name. Any value added in this field will show up first on the student's profile. If this field is left blank, we'll display the student's First Name. This field needs to be updated in your student system. If not, then any changes made in Handshake manually will be overwritten on the next import.

Learn more about Preferred Student Names

Any additional email addresses that your students have been assigned that are not their main email_address. You can upload more than one additional email address by separating each email address with a semicolon. These emails must be associated with your school email domain and end with .edu.

Learn more about Additional Email Addresses for Students

The student's departmental GPA at your school (i.e. what a student has earned in their main field of study). This also has to be a value between 0 and 4 with no more than 2 hundredths (example: 3.47).

The Primary Major field will not show up on a student's profile and is primarily used for FDS. It is the student's primary major, if they have multiple majors. Only 1 major can be uploaded in this field. The major name must be included in the primary_education:major_names field for the primary major to upload to the student's account.

The name of the minor that this student has declared in Handshake (note: there's a limit of 255 characters per minor). The formatting for these minors must be capital case (i.e., Math;Art History). You can upload more than one minor for a student by separating each minor with a semicolon (i.e. Math;Art History).

This is the student's primary college, if they have multiple colleges. The primary college field will not show up on a student's profile and is primarily used for FDS. Only 1 college can be uploaded in this field. The college name must be included in the primary_education:college_names field for the primary major to be updated to the student's account.

The college that a student is connected to. This field supports multiple entries for students that have multiple colleges (i.e. "Ross School of Business" at the University of Michigan and "College of Engineering"). You can upload multiple colleges by separating each college with a semicolon, i.e. "Ross School of Business;College of Engineering". Note: Due to the nature of CSV files, you cannot include multiple college names for one student if one of those college names contains a comma.

The date when a student started their current education at the school. It must be in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" for automated Student data syncs. For Manual student data uploads, you can format a Students file in mm/dd/yyyy and can check the box "Use mm/dd/yyyy format" in the importer job settings when uploading a new Students CSV. This is incredibly useful when it comes to searching students, qualifications for jobs, and knowing when to shift students to alumni. 

The date when a student is expected to graduate. Please note that it has to be included in the format yyyy-mm-dd, unless otherwise specified in the job! This is incredibly useful when it comes to searching students, qualifications for jobs, and knowing when to shift students to be alumni. There is now an option on the importer to use a mm/dd/yyyy format. If you choose this option for formatting, please make sure you check the box next to "use mm/dd/yyyy format' when loading your file to the importer.
Note: Student accounts won't automatically update to "Alumni" after the given primary_education:end_date.

Learn more about Updating Graduating Students to Alumni

This denotes whether the student is currently enrolled or has graduated. It's used for reporting to differentiate between students who are currently active on campus and those who might be on some sort of official absence from school. By assigning TRUE, this will set the user to attending, while FALSE will set them to not attending. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

This field is where you can include student ID numbers that correlate with student card IDs. This string must be contained in a card swipe output. If you want to use a card swipe to check students into events, career fairs, or other kiosks, make sure you include this field.

Learn more on How to Enable Card Swipe Check-in for Students

Schools that have multiple campuses as part of their Handshake setup can use this to designate a specific campus for students. (i.e., 'Main')

The ethnicity of the student. This is a custom field that can include any text you wish to upload.

Note: The ethnicity and gender field is for internal reporting purposes only. This information won't be available to employers or used by employers for outreach. The information that's imported by your institution is different from the ethnicity and gender data that students can voluntarily share.

For best reporting results, we suggest using one of the US Census designations outlined below.

Native American/Alaskan Native
Black or African American
Asian/Asian American
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Latino(a)
White/Caucasian
Middle Eastern

Learn more on Interpreting Gender and Ethnicity in Handshake

The gender of the student. The field is custom where you can include any text that you wish to upload.

Note: The ethnicity and gender field is for internal reporting purposes only. This information won't be available to employers or used by employers for outreach. The information that's imported by your institution is different from the ethnicity and gender data that students can voluntarily share.

Learn more on Interpreting Gender and Ethnicity in Handshake

If a student is work study eligible. This field determines whether students can view and apply to jobs posted as work study. By assigning TRUE, this will set the student to eligible, while FALSE will remove their eligibility. Only students with TRUE will be able to view and apply to work study jobs. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

Used to archive or reactivate student accounts. By assigning TRUE, this will archive the student, while FALSE will unarchive the student. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

This section can be used to import any outside information that you would like to sync from your SIS that might provide more nuanced information about your students in a semi-colon separated list of label names. Some example values that we see imported here are things like Honors Student or Attending Part Time (here's a formatting example: Honors Student;Attending Part Time). Basically, this could be any type of additional information that you might want to use to organize, categorize, or parse out your students. 

Note: leaving this field blank in your import will clear all system labels in Handshake for that respective student. This is not a required column header and we recommend using the field primarily in automated student data uploads. 

System labels are added or removed in every student sync that includes this column, based on exactly what you have in this field. 

Learn more on How to Change System Labels to Normal Labels

The student's mobile number. We can accept any numerical string in this field without special characters such as () or - (but you can include an optional '+' at the beginning of the string).

Email address of the Career Services user that the student is assigned to. 

The address or location of a student's hometown. Ex: "San Francisco, California, USA" or "Phoenix, Arizona". Additional formatting can be found by searching an address here using mapbox.

If the student an athlete. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

If the first generation student. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

If the student is a veteran. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

If the student is a GDPR Subject. Must use boolean values (case sensitive):

TRUE
FALSE

Passing TRUE indicates this student is a GDPR Subject. This field is required if you want to be GDPR compliant.

For more information, review our article on GDPR.