In Arkham Horror, does the first player look at the drawn monster before deciding how to place it?
No, you can't look at them - just draw and place.

From the Arkham Horror FAQ, in the Open Gate and Spawn Monster section (on page 2-3), in its discussion of monster surges:


  When placing monsters, they must be divided as evenly as possible among the open gates, with no gate having more monsters placed on it than the gate where the monster surge occurred this turn. If there are more monsters to be placed than allowed by the monster limit, the players should decide where monsters will be placed. The players must make this decision before monsters have been drawn from the cup. If the players cannot agree where the monsters are to be placed, the first player decides the placement.


That doesn't explicitly cover the scenario you asked about, but the same principle should apply: you figure out where to put all the monsters you're about to draw, then you draw them.