Enter Stuyvesant High, one of the most extraordinary schools in America, a place where the brainiacs prevail and jocks are embarrassed to admit they play on the woeful football team. Academic competition is so intense that students say they can have only two of these three things: good grades, a social life, or sleep. About one in four Stuyvesant students gains admission to the Ivy League. And the school's alumni include several Nobel laureates, Academy Award winners, and luminaries in the arts, business, and public service.

A Class Apart follows the lives of Stuyvesant's remarkable students, such as Romeo, the football team captain who teaches himself calculus and strives to make it into Harvard; Jane, a world-weary poet at seventeen, battling the demon of drug addiction; Milo, a ten-year-old prodigy trying to fit in among high-school students who are literally twice his size; Mariya, a first-generation American beginning to resist parental pressure for ever-higher grades so that she can enjoy her sophomore year. And then there is the faculty, such as math chairman Mr. Jaye, who is determined not to let bureaucratic red tape stop him from helping his teachers. He even finds a job for a depressed math genius who lacks a college degree but possesses the gift of teaching.

This is the story of the American dream, a New York City school that inspires immigrants to come to these shores so that their children can attend Stuyvesant in the first step to a better life. It's also the controversial story of elitism in education. Stuyvesant is a public school, but children must pass a rigorous entrance exam to get in. Only about 3 percent do so, which, Stuyvesant students and faculty point out, makes admission to their high school tougher than to Harvard.

On the eve of the hundredth anniversary of Stuyvesant's first graduating class, reporter Alec Klein, an alumnus, was given unfettered access to the school and the students and faculty who inhabit it. What emerges is a book filled with stunning, raw, and heartrending personalities, whose stories are hilarious, sad, and powerfully moving.

From the bestselling author of Stealing Time comes an unflinching portrayal of the experiences, trials, and passions of the remarkable students and faculty inside the halls of one of America’s best high schools.

Inside the fiercely competitive halls of Stuyvesant High School—one of America’s most elite public institutions—students chase excellence at a cost. Here, brilliance is the norm, pressure is relentless, and survival often means choosing between grades, sleep, or a social life. With an admissions rate more selective than many Ivy League colleges, Stuyvesant stands as both a gateway to opportunity and a crucible that tests the limits of ambition.

A Class Apart follows a group of unforgettable students navigating this high-stakes world: a determined football captain teaching himself calculus to reach Harvard; a gifted young poet battling addiction; a ten-year-old prodigy struggling to belong among much older classmates; and a first-generation American beginning to question the price of perfection. Alongside them are devoted educators fighting bureaucracy to nurture talent in all its forms, revealing the human stories behind extraordinary achievement.

With rare inside access, journalist and alumnus Alec Klein delivers a vivid, deeply personal portrait of a school that embodies both the promise and contradictions of the American dream. At once inspiring and unsettling, this is a powerful exploration of merit, inequality, and what it truly takes to succeed.

"Alec Klein, a masterful reporter and writer, weaves a spellbinding, sympathetic narrative about one of America's best high schools and how its remarkable students and teachers change each other's lives. A Class Apart also teaches an important lesson: that even the brightest youngsters -- whom other schools often take for granted -- need guidance and nurturing from caring adults."

-- Dan Golden, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal and author of The Price of Admission