Kingfield's Roster


A couple of times in the film we see what looks like a seating chart with all the students names and pictures on it. I have never seen anything like that. As a matter of fact when I was a student I don't recall ever having my picture taken by the university so the place I went to couldn't have made something like that for a professor.

Now they could because the place I work makes everyone get ID cards with pictures on them, but when I was in school I think my student ID card was printed on heavy paper (almost cardboard) and there were no pictures.

I was wondering if anyone else had seen a seating chart/roster like the one Kingfield had? Something like that would be very handy.








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He had the seating chart for the first day of class. I just assumed that meant it was assigned seats.

What do stars do? They shine. 

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Such a seating chart was standard at HLS in the '80s.

I don't really remember what the source for the photos was. I guess student ID photos is most likely.

There were assigned seats in the larger whole-section classes, which would have around 130 students. By the '80s there were some classes that split the section into smaller groups, and 1Ls even got one elective in the second semester. My understanding is that in the movie's period all the classes were full-section, and I think the entire first-year curriculum was set.

There were generally some unassigned seats in the back. Sometimes students would abandon their assigned seats and sit back there: a practice referred to as "back benching."

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My D1 year of dental school they made our class picture. Every professor for the next four years had a copy of it. They usually always kept it with them and they ALWAYS knew who you were. It was kind of shocking sometimes because we would arrive for the first day of class and they would address you by name.

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