A great thread to start. I was just contemplating this myself, as my daughter may be attending as many as 4 revisit days (though I’m hoping to get her to winnow the list further). But here are some of the things that I’d started thinking about as things I would want to know. I’d love it if others could add to this list.
– Are the dorms vertically integrated (i.e., 9th-12th graders) or separated out by upper and lower classes? If the former, how do they handle keeping things age-appropriate for the younger kids and things like study hall and earlier lights out?
– How much opportunity is there really to take elective classes and how and when does that fit into their schedules? (I’m always wow’ed by some of the amazing sounding classes these schools offer, but am starting to realize that sometimes it can be somewhat illusory as there are so many required classes)
– Same question with regard to extracurricular clubs and the like. How much of the endlessly long list of clubs and organizations are things that kids are really heavily involved in vs. things that they join so they can put it on a college application but it’s not really very active
– Pertinent for my daughter, who’s not really into team sports: most schools say that you can do other things like drama, community service, dance, etc in lieu of the sports requirement, but then have a lot of complicated limitations on that like having to do a team sport when they first start, or a certain number of seasons per year, etc.
– If your kid likes sports but was not a recruited athlete, how competitive is it to make the team in the relevant sports? And how much of the varsity team is filled with recruits? At some schools, particularly for the marquee sports, if you don’t make varsity by the time you’re a sophomore, you’re not likely ever going to make it, whereas other schools like to see the kids come up through the ranks and hopefully participate in varsity by the time they’re seniors.
– For any special things the school offers like travel or community service opportunities, certificate programs, internships, and the like, typically more kids want to do them than they can accommodate. If so, how do they choose who gets to participate?
– How racially, geographically, and socioeconomically diverse is the school, and how well integrated is it? Do kids tend to mostly be friends with other students from like backgrounds, or is the school successful in slicing and dicing so that most kids have a broad array of relationships in different contexts.
– What are the policies on technology use at school? Does the school recommend that all kids have a laptop, and do they support both Mac and PCs? When and where are kids allowed to use cell phones? Is the internet turned off at a certain point at night?
– How does the advisor program work? What are the expectations for the advisors, how are they assigned, are kids able to switch advisors (and do they really do that, or is it considered rude to do so)?
– What’s the parent community like? If you don’t live nearby, are there still opportunities to meet other parents, get involved in school-related activities, etc?