<p>Just wondering if any current boarding school students or parents attended any open houses during the application process. Was it worthwhile? Did you learn anything that you were not informed of during the tour/interview? Did it help you develop a feeling for the culture of the school? Did you get a chance to speak with teachers and/or coaches?</p>
<p>Yes, I went to a few open houses last year, and I found them to be useful. Some open houses are geared towards day students. Less useful, but still somewhat informative, are the private receptions. You will get the basic information you need from the tour/interview. The open houses and receptions add a little more information about what the schools view as important to them.</p>
<p>We attended one open house. It can get quite expensive if you are traveling 2000 miles or so to get to the open house. I agree with burbparent, if you are a day student or a close drive give it a try. Interestingly, the open house we went to was attended by families as far as Asia.</p>
<p>I think they are a good way to see the school without making the commitment of having an interview. I learned when we were visiting schools with my daughter and older son, that for a few of the schools, we all had a very negative feeling pretty quickly, and were not happy to have to spend a few hours doing the interview and tour process. we went to an open house at one school last year, and will do the tour and visit there a few weeks because we liked what we saw. </p>
<p>for example, my kids were going to be boarding students, and when we got to one school we learned that there were a total of only ten girls who boarded, and all were from foreign countries and did not speak much english. that would not have been a school for us to consider further.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody! You all raised some interesting points.</p>