NOTRE DAME ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL

A Staten Island family (or a family willing to commute) looking for a faith-centered all-girls high school where leadership, service, and the arts are taken seriously alongside college prep.

• All-girls environment where the explicit goal is empowering young women as leaders and change-makers, not just preparing them for college.
• Sponsorship by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, giving the school a documented mission rooted in a centuries-old educational tradition rather than a generic Catholic identity.
• A meaningful arts offering — music, dance, and visual arts alongside STEM — unusual for a school of this size and tuition tier.
• A "Global Citizen" program that frames service and social awareness as part of the core NDA experience, not an afterthought.
• Reasonable size at roughly 400 students, supporting both a real elective catalog and the kind of teacher-student familiarity parents consistently praise.

• The 16-minute walk to the Stapleton SIR station means most families will drive, carpool, or arrange buses — not a drop-off-at-the-subway school.
• As a Catholic school, theology, retreats, service hours, and faith formation are part of the daily experience, not optional extras; families should be comfortable with that.
• Demographics skew heavily White (81%), so families prioritizing a more racially and culturally diverse peer environment may want to weigh this carefully.
• Tuition of $12,700–$13,700 is moderate by NYC Catholic-secondary standards but still a meaningful commitment, and some parents in reviews have questioned whether the academic return matches the price.
• The student-teacher ratio of 19.3:1 is solid but not unusually small — the "teachers know every student" feel parents describe comes from culture, not class size.