Always wondered this, same goes for in high school when you get a teacher who doesn’t have a seating chart.
Would it be annoying or something? Like the front and middle will always have the same people in the same exact seat everyday.
Humans are creatures of habit.
I noticed though that this hasn’t been the case in my grad classes. People are often hanging out with classmates beforehand and sit with them when they come in. This leads to different seating arrangements each class so rarely do habits form.
If given the choice, I always sit in the front and near the teacher. I plan on doing the same in college in order to suck up, get called on more, etc.
So if I want to move and sit in the front or back(depending on the class) where a person would sit everyday normally, would they be mad since I broke their habit? I don’t want to be that guy you know.
I always sit in the same seat because I don’t want to “take someone’s spot.” I feel as if everyone claims his or her seat within the first day/week of class, so I don’t want to sit where someone chose to sit because I feel like I am being rude.
Also, people tend to sit where they feel comfortable, which is usually around friends, so I would feel annoyed if someone chose to sit where I had been sitting since the first day of class.
Yeah that is how I feel and why I don’t want to “take someone’s spot” and be rude.
No, it’s not rude. Sit where you want to sit.
It’s like the prisoner’s dilemma. You might want to move, but you don’t because you’re afraid nobody else will cooperate.
It’s not rude. You also get extra leeway during the first few lectures of a class, people are usually adding/dropping classes and coming up with routines during that time frame. I think the only thing that people are careful of is if a large group of people tend to sit in the same spot. My group in 2 of my lectures was like 6-7 people big, but there was usually space in our preferred seating area because people knew where we say. In the end, it’s nbd. If you’re gonna make a fuss about someone being in ‘your seat’ in college, you probs shouldn’t be there to begin with.
Not gonna lie, I get really uncomfortable and kinda sad when somebody takes my usual spot. But I’m also very non-confrontational, so I’m not gonna tell anyone to move. I just suck it up and find a new spot.
I like sitting near the front and/or next to my friends. I technically have glasses (and contacts) but I never wear them, so if I sit in the back I can’t see the board.
Well, it’s open seating, not the cool kids table in the HS cafeteria; if you want to sit in your preferred seat, be the first one outside the classroom. 
I’m a creature of habit too, but more for which side of the room/distance from front vs. a specific seat.
If someone is really particular about the exact seat they get, then they should get to class early. If they can’t (perhaps because they have another class or work or something) right before class, then that’s life. They are (presumably) adults and can survive sitting in a different seat. They can’t expect everyone else to save a specific seat for them that they don’t even know exists. Sit wherever you want. No one else has any more right to a seat than you do.
I always had preferred places to sit to (although it was usually an area, rather than a specific seat), but if I couldn’t sit there for whatever reason, I would just sit somewhere else. It’s not a big deal.
If there is a specific medical reason they someone needs to sit in a particular seat, then sure, it’s not unreasonable for others to move to accommodate them. However, as someone who wears glasses because I need them to see the board, I have very little patience for anyone who has glasses but chooses not to wear them.
because that’s MY seat, and I will tell anyone I see sitting in it to go away.
^ You seem like a peach.
Sit wherever you want. If someone has an issue with it, that’s their problem and not yours.
Like Sheldon Cooper says:
"In an ever-changing world it is a single point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function on a four-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, that spot, at the moment I first sat on it, would be (0,0,0,0)
I like having a consistent seat to sit in every day just out of habit. I think of my seats as ‘my seat.’ I think it depends largely on the class though too. If we’re talking about a giant lecture with 500 people, then it shouldn’t really matter. If it’s a smaller class with 20 people I think it matters more, even if only as a courtesy to the professor. In smaller classes the seating arrangements help professors learn the names of their students.
I don’t think it’s so crazy to think of others when taking a seat: all the classes I have been in have that sort of consistency develop. No, you shouldn’t ask people to move if they do it, but it’s an unspoken courtesy after a few weeks in the class. Of course, the first two weeks practically anything goes. So while I would never tell anyone to move, I don’t think the opinion of “should of got there early” is quite accurate. It’s an unwritten courtesy. If you KNOW someone sits in a spot regularly, and you take their seat because they didn’t get there before you, that’s a bit rude in my book.
For reference, my classes have ranged from 15 to 60 people. I do agree the rules change as the class gets bigger.
I think it’s a bit of an unspoken rule as well. I tend to sit in the front and center in my classes because it’s where I learn most efficiently. I get there early to stake my seat out for the first couple of weeks, but after that I don’t feel like I should have to show up early to make sure I get it. I feel like it should just be regarded as ‘my seat’. I wouldn’t take a seat if I’d seen the same person sitting in it regularly for weeks.
However, the biggest class I’ve ever been in had about 90 students. Most of them have had between 20-30.
And now this fall I’m going to be in an intro computer programming class with around 700 people. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out.
But I do think it’s a little crazy to give priority to one student over another for the entire term. The way I see it is if two students want the same seat, then it shouldn’t be the first student gets that seat for the entire term because they got their first in the first class or the first couple of classes. The other student may have wanted that seat but thought “Shoot, I’ll have to get here earlier next time.” The first student doesn’t have a right to that seat because they sat there a couple of classes in a row. The other student who wants to sit there should have just as much of a chance to it as anyone else. The other student might not even know that one student sits there regularly–they might just think that someone sits there but not that it’s always the same person. Or they might think, I’m here early, why can’t I sit in the seat I want to sit in? I think it’s strange to expect students to consider the desires of the student who normally sits in the seat but that that student isn’t expected to consider the desires of the student who never got a chance to sit there. A bit of a double standard, in my opinion.
Then again, I never really knew people cared that much about their seat until this thread.
But to be fair, most of my classes were large lecture halls. I had a couple of smaller classes that were 20-30 students, and students sat wherever. People usually sat in the same general area, but shifting seats wasn’t uncommon. I liked to sit next to the outlet, but if someone got there before me, then it was their seat. No harm, I’ll just sit somewhere else. I don’t own the seat just because I often sat there. My graduate program was 6 students total, and we often sat in the same seats. We talked about it a lot, jokingly, when someone would sit somewhere different, but we usually just sat in different seats that were typical. It’s really not that big of a deal. I never felt like someone was breaking an unspoken rule or that someone was rudely taking my seat. They are allowed to sit anywhere they like, and if that bothers me, well, that’s my problem, not theirs. I don’t own the seat anymore than they do.
Some of it is definitely habit, and then beyond that, I think there is a little bit of etiquette. People don’t want to take a seat that someone else sat in, since that person might have been really happy with that seat. In my high school, this etiquette was actually verbally established (by students) because front seats were coveted. First come on the first day, first serve. But in college it seems more like habit, plus having “your own” seat gives you a sense of belonging in your class.