One of the best high schools in the country is on the edge of Manhattan, just a few blocks

from where the World Trade Center is now.

Stivocent.

I think that there's a feeling of...

There's a sense that it's a special place.

Mara Gay writes about the city and the city schools for the New York Times editorial board.

It just gives a sense of importance of being elite.

For Nobel laureates have gone to stivocent.

It was Attorney General Eric Holder and jazz musician, the loniest monk.

Before Frank McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize, he taught English here.

I mean, you walk in and you can kind of feel the...

Especially the entrance has this soaring entrance in Tribeca.

There's a sense that people there are going places that there's kind of competition in

the air, excitement.

This competition...

It's part of what's become controversial about this school.

Because it's a competition that seems to have filtered out whole classes of people.

Just seven black students were admitted to stivocent's incoming freshman class for next year.

That's out of nearly 900 kids.

When this news broke last week, the Times tracked down a few of the black and brown students

who go to stivocent.

They talked about the excitement and dread of getting into a selective school.

...