When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment but are also committing to becoming part of a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school.

Twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, students at the MIT Sloan School of Management organize charity auctions. Each “ocean” (the 60-person cohort with which students take their first-semester core classes) selects a charity to support and identifies items to be auctioned, ranging from lunch with a professor to a home-cooked meal by a student to more unusual offerings, like having a professor chauffeur you to class in his classic car. First-year oceans compete to see which one can raise the most money, and second-year students organize a similar auction. In 2014, the oceans raised more than $48,000, and in 2013, the total was more than $70,000. Over the years, the events have benefitted such organizations as Children of Fallen Patriots, Heifer International, Curing Kids Cancer, the Cancer Research Institute, Pencils of Promise, and the Wounded Warrior Program. Items up for bid have included a personal White House Tour, a weekend tour of Napa Valley, and a week at a Costa Rican beach house.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at MIT Sloan and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.