On a visit to another school with their son, Andrew, Simuel and Anne Washington had a somewhat different agenda. Her potato analogy is an apt one. It takes a visit to look beneath the surface of gorgeous video tapes and well-designed brochures. Brochures can't paint the entire picture. How right Simuel and Anne are.
Nothing substitutes for a visit.
The school can have the highest reputation. Your friends can praise the school their children attend. Even your child can promote a school because it's the coolest one around. But until you set foot on the campus, neither you nor your child really will know if that school matches your collective requirements. Even two children from the same family won't necessarily have their individual needs met at the same school.