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My high school had an exchange program with a high school in Japan. Since there were always more Japanese students who wanted to come to the US than kids at my high school who took Japanese (and had the ability to house someone) they opened up the 'hosting' to anyone my senior year. We had this ADORABLE girl (Sayoko) come stay with us for 2 weeks. She was really a lot of fun (despite the fact that she thought her English wasn't great she really tried hard to communicate and learn--and her English was better than she thought it was). My friend Lisa hosted another girl too and we got to go sight-seeing with them while they were here. I kept in touch with a few of the exchange students for about 2-3 years after they came to stay, but we've all sadly lost touch now (it was 10 years ago now that they came to stay!)
I think it always depends on the student themselves. We had family friends who hosted a boy from Spain for a year and he was also very interested in learning 'American' life and trying to learn lots from his experience here.
I say go for it--just find out as much as you can about the possible student you'd be hosting. If it sounds like they're really involved students who have a willingness to learn here it should be cool. If it seems like they're in it to 'party', stay away.
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