With graduation rates at Camden's two public high schools now around 50 percent, city students with college aspirations doggedly pursue scholarships to private schools outside the city. But the competition is fierce, and once at their new schools, students must adapt to an intense workload and new social situations.
Annual tuition often exceeds $20,000 a year; the Camden students rely on scholarships and financial aid to cover virtually the entire cost, but in some cases they are in competition with thousands of students from inner-city school districts across the country, with acceptance rates for some programs around 20 percent.
"The kids need to have had the kind of preparation it takes to be successful in these environments," said Keith Wilkerson, a program manager with A Better Chance, a New York City nonprofit that assists inner-city minority students in gaining access to private school scholarships and financial aid. "We don't have spots. The agreement [with the private schools] is, they're going to consider our kids and take a real look at our application."
Students are weeded out through testing and a process similar to applying to college, including recommendation letters and staff interviews. Often, students take summer classes to make sure they are not behind on the first day of class.
Lorenzo Gibson, a student at Moorestown Friends School from East Camden, recalls purchasing a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War ahead of an interview for the school's scholarship program.
The Quaker school awards two seventh graders and one ninth grader from Camden scholarships each year, and Gibson thought the weighty edition he purchased at Barnes & Noble would impress the selection committee.
