KGSP Placement ‘STEPs’ into the Future

Cornell. MIT. Northwestern. Stanford. University of Chicago. Over the past sixteen years, KGSP students working with the Program’s placement team have received admissions to these and other top global universities at rates that exceed international students applying independently. The KGSP provides students with preparation resources for standardized testing, workshops and iterative feedback for essays, and individualized coaching and recommendations for target institutions. Behind the scenes, the KGSP conducts outreach to universities to support its applicants and better understand competitive advantages for each institution that can be showcased in applications, all in an effort to provide optimal academic opportunities for every student.

This year is no exception: Cohort 16 students who worked with the KGSP’s placement team will soon be starting undergraduate programs at universities that include the above list as well as Caltech, Columbia, Berkeley, and Georgia Tech. And, once again, every student has secured full admission into a university ranked among the top institutions for their STEM degree program. 

^{AY 2024-25 (Cohort 16) KGSP students at the University of Pennsylvania posing with pennants from their future undergraduate universities.}

After sixteen years of offering placement support exclusively to students participating in a pre-university Foundation Year program hosted at U.S. university partners for talented Saudi high school graduates who need additional support in English language or foundational STEM coursework, KAUST Academy is transitioning university placement support to a new in-Kingdom preparatory program that leverages KAUST’s institutional reach and talent development ecosystem to advance language and STEM enrichment across the Kingdom at the secondary school level. This new program – called STEPs (Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Program) – is designed to reach a greater number of students across the Kingdom who aspire to accelerate their learning and enroll in top universities around the world.

The chart below compares KGSP students’ admission rates at select highly competitive U.S. universities; consistently, KGSP students outperform the international and domestic student admission rate. (NOTE: not all universities publish their international student admission rate in the Common Data Set.)

STEPs combines expertise gained from more than a decade of KGSP admissions success with KAUST Academy’s talent development programming to deploy tailored support at an earlier level that establishes a strong foundation of STEM fundamentals for a wider pool of talented Saudi youth and accelerates the accumulation of expertise through a combination of virtual learning and in-person specialized activities. STEPs will reach a wider population of students and give them the same advantages that KGSP students have historically had in navigating competitive international admissions.

Abdullah Alsunayni, a KGSP Cohort 16 student completing a Foundation Year at the University of Pennsylvania, credits this placement support with his admissions this year, saying KGSP “gave me the chance to aim even higher and grow in ways I hadn’t expected. Alhamdulillah, my efforts paid off and I was accepted into one of my dream universities – UC Berkeley. " Through STEPs, a whole generation of Saudi students will have opportunities to pursue dream opportunities just like Abdullah as KAUST Academy continues to unlock the potential of talented Saudi youth to excel at top global universities. 

^{Abdullah Alsunayni (middle), a Cohort 16 FY student at University of Pennsylvania. Abdullah will be matriculating to University of California, Berkeley in the fall.}