Tens of thousands of New Yorkers came to Brooklyn Tech this weekend for the high school fair, with lines that wrapped up Fort Greene Place and along Fulton Street. More than 19,000 people attended on Saturday alone, according to Elizabeth Sciabarra, who should know. (She's the head of the DOE's Office of Student Enrollment and Planning.) Last year, 80,000 students applied for high-school seats; visitors this weekend seemed to include at least as many parents and younger siblings, in reluctant tow, as eighth-graders.

While some precociously prescient kids claimed to have been working on their high-school lists since sixth grade, many others were thinking through their choices as they met with principals and older students. A few middle schools organized school buses to bring students and families to the fair. But plenty of parents were uncertain about the high-school selection and admissions process; one father asked, before going into Tech, "What's all the fuss? Aren't all the high schools the same?"

If you attended the fair this weekend, what did you learn? What surprised you? What would you change? Next month, each borough will host its own high-school fair; what can we tell parents to prepare them for the day -- and help them get the most from the time they invest?