Minuteman

Punctuality is not an option at HBS. This is a characteristic I find extremely appealing, though I suspect most prospective students are only dimly aware of it when they think of what student life is like. (It reminds me of the military, and incidentally there are a lot of students here from the armed forces.) For a class with an 8:40 AM start, when the second hand on the classroom clock sweeps past the 12 you'd better be planted in your seat, because things will get rolling. My learning team meets every weekday at 7:30 AM, and I try to never arrive past 7:30 and zero seconds. It's an unusual norm for graduate schools, from what I can tell, but when you think about lecture-based classes it shouldn't be too surprising: they can commence without all students present and engaged, since the conversation isn't necessarily two-way. Classes also end on time, almost without exception, and professors are apologetic if they run three or four minutes over. When I worked for CBS News I remember seeing a tightly choreographed Evening News production where every second was scripted and accounted for. We're not that extreme, but I've been surprised how aware of the time I've become here, sometimes getting scheduled down to the minute. Somewhat paradoxically, it seems to be going by even faster.