55 students from Saudi scholarship programme Mawhiba accepted at top US universities

RIYADH: 55 students from the Mawhiba scholarship program of the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity were accepted in high-ranking universities in the US for the year 2020, including Harvard, Berkeley, Cornell and Purdue.
Mawhiba, which is also part of the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques’ Overseas Scholarship Program, trains gifted students in all stages of public and higher education. In partnership with the Ministry of Education the initiative prepares and sponsors gifted students to join leading international universities. Its Excellence Program is a one-year integrated training program that starts during the second semester of junior year in high school and continues until receiving university acceptance.
Students of the Excellence Program are provided with intensive training courses and workshops for the SAT (Suite of Assessments) test, a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the US, to help students achieve the required grades to enrol in prestigious universities. Individual counseling sessions are also provided, where a comprehensive plan is designed to develop the academic aspects and personal curriculum for each student and to support the applications.
The students affiliated to the Excellence Program follow manifold training in CV writing, the method of filling admission forms and preparing files related to volunteer work and extracurricular activities that students accomplished during their school years, an important requirement for admission at US universities.
Of the 70 students who went through the Excellence Program, 63 of these students applied, 55 of whom were accepted.
One of the most noteworthy admissions in 2020 was that of Fares Al-Youssef who received an early admission at Harvard University and an admission at the University of California Berkeley. Mohammed Al-Attas received admission to Cornell University.