100 Percent Of The Seniors At This Chicago Prep School Made It Into College For The Seventh Year In A Row

Chicago’s Urban Prep Charter School is celebrating its successes yet again. For the seventh year in a row, 100% of the seniors at the predominantly black all-boys charter school have been admitted to a four-year college or university. Just one year of 100% admission is a huge thing for a school to boast. But seven years in a row? Yeah, it’s a pretty big deal.

The 252 members of Urban Prep’s class of 2016 together received over 1,500 college admissions to 190 colleges and universities across the U.S. But wait, there’s more, because: scholarships. The graduates have raked in $11 million in scholarships and grants so far.

Urban Prep recently celebrated the news with a tradition they call “Signing Day,” with each graduate announcing their school of choice by signing the Urban Prep “100 Percent To College” banner and the “Credimus Book.”

The school, whose motto is “We Believe,” reminds visitors on its website that “Urban Prep students will not fall into the trap of negative stereotypes and low expectations.” And ten years after the school’s founding, it looks like its students haven’t.

“It’s a great day,” senior Rudolph Long told CBS Chicago. Long committed to Hampton University during the ceremony. “I feel great. We all made it. We all come from good environments so to see us all going to college is nice.”

CBS Chicago also spoke with Urban Prep CEO Tim King at the ceremony, who said he was proud of the graduates’ accomplishments. “Every year, I’m just wowed by these young men by what they are doing,” he said. “We started Urban Prep with the goal of moving the needle when it comes to black male achievement and these guys proved to me, the city and the world every year, that we did the right thing when we founded Urban Prep ten years ago.”

He also spoke on the wide range of colleges and universities the students will be attending. “We’ve got two guys going to my alma mater, Georgetown University, we have our first admit to Yale University this year. We have students who’ve been admitted to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Morehouse College, schools all over the country. It’s a huge level of diversity in terms of the types of schools these young men will be going to in the fall.”

All we have to say is, wow. We’ll be looking your way for the 8th straight win next spring, Urban Prep.