KGSP Accepts Its First Round of Recipients for Academic Year 2015/16!
06/10/2015
The KAUST Gifted Student Program is pleased to announce that 60 soon-to-be high school graduates have been accepted as “Early Birds,” and will be joining the Program later this year.
KGSP Early Birds are the first group of students invited to join the Scholarship during each yearly admission cycle, even before completing their final year of high school. These students represent some of Saudi Arabia’s best and brightest young scholars, who have demonstrated a level of academic excellence and passion for STEM fields that make them a wonderful addition to the KGSP and KAUST communities.
High academic performance is a pillar of the KGSP. This year, Early Bird admissions recipients had some of the highest average high school GPAs and Qodorat scores in Saudi Arabia, comprising the top 1 percent in the nation. Early Birds also earned highly competitive scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), with several placing in the top 4 percent of SAT test-takers worldwide. These achievements, in addition to top scores earned on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), have placed this year’s Early Birds on a successful path from the very beginning.
In addition to academic achievements, this year’s Early Birds reflect KGSP’s focus on holistic skill-building through meaningful extracurricular activities and community service. Early Birds have participated in science fairs and competitions including the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity and I-SWEEEP, the International Sustainable World (Energy, Engineering, and Environment) Project , as well as contributed to humanitarian projects like Habitat for Humanity and the International Rescue Committee—opportunities that enhance and strengthen the personal and pre-professional development so highly valued among KGSP students.
This fall, most of the group will go on to Foundation Year programs located at prestigious research universities across the U.S., while the more than 25 percent who have already received admissions offers have the opportunity to matriculate directly as freshmen to such institutions as Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford, and the University of California, San Diego—just to name a few.
Congratulations to this year’s KGSP Early Bird Recipients!