What should I ask at a mesivta open house?
Twenty questions that get past the presentation, grouped by who to ask and what the answer tells you.
An open house is designed to show a school at its best. That is fair; every school does it. Your job is to ask the questions the presentation didn't answer. Here they are, sorted by who can actually answer them.
Ask the menahel
- How is the day structured, hour by hour, and how much is seder versus shiur?
- What does a boy who thrives here look like, and what does a boy who struggles here look like?
- What happens when a bochur falls behind in learning? Who notices, and what do they do?
- How are shiurim formed, and can a boy move between them during the year?
- How do you handle phones, music, and the things parents worry about?
- Who is the person my son goes to when something is wrong, and how does he know that?
Ask a rebbe
- How long have you been here, and why did you stay?
- What do you do in the first month to get to know a new boy?
- How do you communicate with parents, and how often?
- What's one thing you wish parents understood about 9th grade?
Ask the dorm counselor
- Who is in the building at night, and what is his role?
- How are rooms assigned, and how many boys to a room?
- What does an in-Shabbos look like, and how often do boys go home?
- What happens when a boy is sick, or homesick?
- How do you handle a boy who isn't fitting in?
Ask the bochurim, quietly
- What do you do Thursday night?
- Who do you learn with during night seder?
- What's the hardest thing about this yeshiva?
- Would you send your younger brother here?
Ask the office
- What is the tuition range, and how does financial aid work?
- When do applications open and close, and when do decisions come?
- What does the farher cover?
What to do with the answers
Write them down the same night, while they're fresh. Notice which questions got a specific answer and which got a general one. Specific answers mean a school has thought about the question. By the third visit, that pattern will tell you more than any single answer did.
Written by the ChinuchPlace team
Educators and administrators who work in yeshivos and mesivtas, writing what we tell friends who ask. Nothing here is sponsored, and no school is named.
Questions parents ask
- Is it rude to ask about tuition at an open house?
- No. Ask the office or the menahel for the range and the aid process. Schools expect it and respect a family that plans.
- Should my son come to the open house?
- Yes, if the school allows it. Watch how he reacts to the building and the boys. His read matters.
- How many open houses should we attend?
- Three or four. After that the differences blur and the decision gets harder, not easier.
Ready to look?
Every program on the shelf, with the facts families ask about first.