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.
Students we interviewed reported that “Bulldog” football is a key component of autumn on the Yale University campus, and the Harvard-Yale rivalry (known as “The Game”) is considered one of the most important face-offs on each season’s schedule. Since 1875, The Game has been played nearly every November at the end of the football season. Because the event alternates between the Harvard and Yale venues each year, Yale School of Management (SOM) students will have the opportunity to attend The Game at the Yale Bowl at least once during their time at the school. However, given the two schools’ proximity to each other, we expect that travelling to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend The Game at Harvard is worth considering.
Graduate students pay student pricing for most athletic events and sit in the student section. The Yale Bowl is only about a mile and a half from campus, and students often walk to the event together in “caravans” after tailgating in the parking lot. The Game brings both the universities and their business schools together. One second-year student told mbaMission, “When we host, we have a weekend of events, including a dance party at GPSCY [the Graduate & Professional Student Center at Yale] and a tailgate the morning of the game. Both of my years, we organized a mixer with HBS, as it’s a great opportunity to mingle with other business school students.”
For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at the Yale SOM and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.
