Notre Dame High School

Save your money! What a huge disappointment our experience has been :(If you’re looking for a college prep HS, I think NDB will fall far behind your expectations. I’ll try to be brief. My daughter and us were very excited about her attending the school. Freshman year went well. However, after Ms. Gleason (NDB principle for 30+ years) retired about 2 years ago, things have went steadily down hill. From an academic perspective, there was a mass exodus of teachers — the really good ones. My daughter (currently a senior) who is an A/​B student has struggled with the school to get into some of the AP classes. They pitch that they are here to help, support and encourage the girls to get into these classes, but we’ve found that it’s an uphill battle if you are less than an A student. Some teachers are good, others are not. This past summer 6 teachers who have taught AP classes to seniors left. The replacements were new teachers who have haven not taught AP classes and have not taught seniors. It resulted in us getting tutoring classes for my daughter. So on top of paying tuition, we pay for tutoring. College Counseling — what a joke! I have friends whose kids attend Harker, Serra, Bellarmine and Sequoia Union HS. NDB falls far behind in comparison. NDB promised us a college/​academic counselor who would mentor and guide our daughter from her freshman year up to her senior year. Well, that counselor left the school and there was no replacement. My daughter’s college counselor is not only managing 140+ seniors but is also the academic counselor for half the student population. On top of that, she’s only been college counseling for 2 years. We did not expect hand holding but we did expect guidance, help, communication about essays, college process, personal statement pointers, review, .etc. Once again, because NDB was not providing us with enough guidance, we hired a college counselor. This may be OK if you’re not paying private HS tuition but to pay $ 25K/​per year AND hire a college counselor is appalling and inexcusable. Meetings with seniors are scarce; maybe twice (once in private, another as a group). In our daughter’s junior year, NDB had only one college prep meeting for the parents. Communication about fast approaching college deadlines is non-​existent and often they are late (as in after the deadline have passed). The school does not hold College fairs or workshops. Students are encouraged to attend those held at other schools (Serra, Avalon, Mitty). For comparison sake, Sequoia Union HS has a college night offered to freshmans — 9^th graders! AND They take them on college tours — also in 9^th grade. Extra curriculars — my daughter put in a lot of effort and time to be chosen to get into the elite and highly sought after Ambassador Club. For two years, she attended all the required events, put in the extra hours (often on the weekend and after-​school), wrote speeches on why she really wants to be a part of it — and was never chosen. In fact, they chose the girls who were popular and who did NOT attend the mandatory events. And last but not least — Socially, NDB is very cliques. Girls are huddled in groups. There is little diversity. You either fit in or you don’t. And if you happen to have a fall out with one group, you are disregarded and ignored from ALL the other groups because these groups don’t want to offend that group. So Lunch is like a scene from prison. Gangs hang out together and no gang wants to welcome a non-​gang member to avoid upsetting the other gangs. The counselors are aware of this and don’t do anything about it. This is happening in a CATHOLIC high school, whose mission is to promote catholic values. In conclusion, the school has not met our expectations but it may meet yours. Good Luck!

Notre Dame was one of those high schools that was given much expectation to over the many years they have gone to public junior high students and tried to express interest in these girls. After graduating from the class of 2011, I will admit that my time there was decent, as the friends you make either keep in touch or drop you like a hot potato after you go to college, as the same feelings go myself as well. The teachers usually knew what they were doing, but the school as a whole did not appeal to those in ‘sticky situations’ too kindly.
Tuition hikes happen every year as they keep dwindling on generously giving financial aid to those students who would succeed or sometimes were just in a crappy financial situation that they paid for half the tuition or lend them books for the year. As of late though, their tuition for the Fall 2013 – 2014 school year has almost made a tipping point of 19k for one year, not including textbooks, food, or the fundraising/​ticket sales that are spent on throughout the year due to mandatory participation.
The school does its best to provide an experience for its students while some fields in their subjects do tend to lack gravely, as for English classes for example, are not usually given the proper educational tools in helping juniors and seniors build on their writing skills when getting ready for the SATs, ACTs, and the college entrance exams. To say that you have to go out of the classroom to learn how to properly write or structure a sentence, is a sad understatement when Notre Dame is supposed to be a private high school built to be a safe and secure place for girls to learn, build their skills, and asking for you to invest in an education you could get at a public high school, excluding the fact that public schools could be «dangerous».
Some girls or parents do tend to like the school for it is a social meeting ground for girls, but it also has a ground where you have to study and work hard to get the grades you feel you deserve. It’s not an easy school, as it could even be compared to other schools in the area due to how the girls have slacked off and never really so homework. And they wonder why they get the grades they do.
But to sum this up, they are losing students and raising tuition as some parents or students don’t want to live or pay 19k for the private high school experience of being «safe»

Notre Dame High School of Belmont shouldn’t be confused with Notre Dame High School of San Jose. Both are Catholic all girl high schools, and both share a common early history.
Notre Dame High of Belmont is on the same campus as Notre Dame Elementary and Notre Dame de Namur University. I’m sure the pressure for the high school to go co-​ed is on, but the school really does a great job of raising confident women who are well prepared for college. While I do wish the school would post their college acceptances on their website.

From a parents stand point, the Academics in addition to the AP and Honors classes was a plus. This high school provided my daughter with a well rounded education and prepared her very well for her next step into a four year private college.
The extracurricular activities were numerous and had a place for a student to excel whether in Sports, Mock Trial, Ambassadors, etc.
The overall high school experience was a very positive one for my daughter. Of course, it helped that this was my daughter’s first choice for High School.
Angie M.
Class of 2012

I am really giving this place 10 stars. I would if i could, this is from a Parent’s point of view.
From day one, I was impressed with Cathy Lewis, the admissions director at Nortre Dame. After a few months at our local public school it was evident that my daughter was not the right fit for the school. Don’t get me wrong i live in one of the best school districts in the US. But for my family it wasn’t the right fit.
I immediately started my research into other local high schools, private and public. Unlike other schools who rushed into talking to me about test scores, Cathy was more concerned about the overall well being of my daughter. She was so nice when we met with her and really connected with my daughter. All the staff at Notre Dame have been very friendly and nice and they all seem to enjoy what they do. It really shows in their demeanor.
I am truly blessed and honored to have my daughter be part of such a wonderful community and would highly recommend this school to anyone interested.

Took hike and passed by the school campus. It’s right next door to Notre Dame college. It’s a very nice campus and looks well kept.

The girls here are taught respect, but do not bring it to the real world.

i am a parent of a child who was educated k thru 12 in the catholic education system. she selected Notre Dame as her high school, though she had been accepted into other high schools. we both feel she had an excellent experience with prepared, caring, dedicated and interested teachers-​interested in all phases of the girls lives. my daughter is now a freshman in college, once again having a wide variety of choices for college, she is out of state in a jesuit college;her take on her education was that she was totally prepared to move into the college world which meant tons of writing, accountable and responsible for time management, action, choices and she works on campus. would we recommend Notre Dame? in a heartbeat. catherine c

I absolutely loved my time at Notre Dame. Hate to say it but the class of 2009 was known as being cruel and nasty (for example, after losing Aquacades to the junior class they decided to riot and chant not very lady like words. cars were egged, threats were made, the underclassmen didn’t feel safe) (of course not everyone in that class was horrid). So I would not agree with Missy’s review…
The faculty genuinely care about the girls. They want the students to succeed. Sure, the administration could do with some modernizing and a few teachers are a wee bit stuck in their ways, but you get that at any school. What you don’t get at every school is the feeling of sisterhood that Notre Dame is capable of instilling in it’s students. YES high school is tough socially speaking, but looking back I can only focus on the happy memories made and the wonderful people I was lucky enough to spend time with.
And academically speaking, Notre Dame more than prepared me for college. I was über prepared if you will. The AP classes were astounding at Notre Dame. Hurley, Hegarty, Martin-​Spencer, Fleig, VK, Gurney… such amazing teachers. They know their subjects and know HOW to properly teach and communicate with students.
I cannot imagine a better high school experience. It’s not «typical» but Notre Dame can be just delightfully magical.
The student council and ASB is incredible, the sports teams have such spirit, they need a drama department ASAP but choir is noteworthy and dance is only getting better with time.

Great school. Great education. It was in the cards that I was to attend ND and my brother go to Serra. Now that I am older and wiser I appreciate the education I received here. An all girls school can be a catty overload but also can be worth it in the end.

i completely agree with missy. i transfered out of notre dame after a year and a half. i was overwhelmed with the work load, i lost all my friends because i was a ‘table hopper’ and i had below average grades. the all girls thing was not a good learning environment. i now go to carlmont high school and i have a 3.8 gpa and the councelors and teachers who work their actually enjoy thwir jobs, unlike notre dame.
while i was at notre, i failed to sell $ 100 worth of raffle tickets so they raised my tuition by $ 300 thanks

=] i currently go to this school as a junior — soon to be a senior! yesss
lets just say, its the only school where you can get carpet burn on your elbows [ there’s carpet on the walls –0-​]
great teachers — some can be strict though.
the only downside is the amount of homework and difficulty…
but otherwise, im glad i go here =]