{"id":7067,"date":"2011-10-06T09:40:37","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T15:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=7067"},"modified":"2011-10-07T11:20:29","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T17:20:29","slug":"beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>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 \u201cbeyond the MBA classroom\u201d at a top business school. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong>In the spring of the first year at Harvard Business School (HBS), student sections (each of which includes approximately 90 students of various ethnicities and nationalities and who have diverse professional backgrounds)\u00a0compete against one another in the Section Olympics. This one-day event, which is not at all academic, includes activities such as Twinkie-eating contests, three-legged races, and dodge ball games. Prizes for the winners include bragging rights.<\/p>\n<p>For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at HBS and 14 other top MBA programs, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.mbamission.com\/collections\/insider-s-guides\" target=\"_blank\">mbaMission Insider\u2019s Guides<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u201cbeyond the MBA classroom\u201d at a top business school. In the spring of the first year at Harvard Business School (HBS), student sections &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harvard-hbs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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 \u201cbeyond the MBA classroom\u201d at a top business school. In the spring of the first year at Harvard Business School (HBS), student sections &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-06T15:40:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-07T17:20:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"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 \u201cbeyond the MBA classroom\u201d at a top business school. In the spring of the first year at Harvard Business School (HBS), student sections &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2011-10-06T15:40:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-07T17:20:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics","datePublished":"2011-10-06T15:40:37+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-07T17:20:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/"},"wordCount":139,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Harvard University (Harvard Business School)"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/","name":"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-06T15:40:37+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-07T17:20:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/beyond-the-mba-classroom-harvard-business-school-section-olympics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Beyond the MBA Classroom: Harvard Business School Section Olympics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;s Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&amp;Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. 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