<p>Just wondering what the benefits of attending an open house vs. a regular visit are. We are not planning on attending any of the open houses with my son since we would have to return for an interview anyway it woudl require another day out of school and work.<br>
But, we are now looking into the possibilty of my daughter changing schools this year as well (shoot me now! LOL). There is a not-so-often mentioned here school that has a middle school component that she could attend as a day student and we are looking into it for a variety of reasons. I'm wondering if it would be worth attending the Open House, or if we should just set up a visit day. They also would love to have her spend the day attending classes.<br>
Thoughts?
THANKS!</p>
<p>Some schools will schedule interviews on open house days.<br>
If your daughter will do it without complaint, I think going to the Open House first and then doing the visit would would be ideal. That way, she will already be somewhat familiar with the school when she has her visit day. Ask the school how many middle schoolers attend the Open House. If it is geared to the upper school, then she may feel uncomfortable.</p>
<p>The Open House visits are pretty good if you can also work in an interview. Yes, the school is cranked up to put its best foot forward...but it's not like you're taken to the waste treatment facility if you go on an individual tour.</p>
<p>I like an open house because you can listen to and perhaps even trade information with other parents. Some will ask questions you might want to ask. You get to eyeball some of the other applicants and feel pretty comfortable with your decision if the school, under ideal conditions, doesn't impress you.</p>
<p>To be honest, I would have rather had an individual visit instead of going to an Open House like I did when I applied to my school, which is a school in western MA not really mentioned on here. The Open House was nice and I was able to get an interview and a barn tour, but I feel like if I'd gone on a normal day, things would have been more normal, I would have been able to have a barn tour with just me and probably could have asked more questions/heard better than with the crowd of people I ended up taking one with. I don't know, I mean, the Open House was great but it would have been nice to have it just be me visiting instead of a lot of other people, because I would have been able to see more a normal day.</p>
<p>Also like Burb Parent said, it would be good to see how many other middle schoolers were attending. At the last Open House my school had (which is both middle and upper), there was a mix of middle schoolers and upper schoolers, but I know if I were a middle schooler I would probably be uncomfortable as the only middle schooler there if that was the case.</p>
<p>Open Houses can be very beneficial as you will be able to discuss schooling options with other like minded parents who, typically, have a wealth of current, valuable info. to share regarding boarding and day schools. Oddly, a personal interview may be more important at the moderately selective prep schools than at the most selective ones.</p>
<p>
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Oddly, a personal interview may be more important at the moderately selective prep schools than at the most selective ones.
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I'm confused, how so?</p>
<p>I'll note we looked only at day schools. Open houses tended to include various presentations which were of some value. One could see students in action (on Q&A panels most often), and get a sense of what other families were like (by the questions they asked). Open houses will tend to give you more hard facts than individual tours may. On a tour, you are subject to a single student guide who may or may not know about things you are interested in.
We tended to go to open houses first, then narrow things down based on what we saw.</p>