RIYADH: The Initiatives Center at the Mohammed bin Salman Charitable Foundation (Misk), represented by the Fellowship and Traineeship Initiative, has reopened applications for the College Prep Program, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday. The program seeks to meet the aspirations of students who wish to enroll in one of the world’s top universities. It offers an intensive preparation program carried out throughout secondary school years. The program aims to improve students’ chances of receiving offers at some of the world’s top universities, including Columbia and Stanford in the US and Oxford and Cambridge in the UK. Students are enrolled in a series of intensive programs that prepare them in terms of character-building and enabling them to pass safely toward university education and start a productive academic life. The first stage of the College Prep Program targets grade 10 students. During the summer vacation of their first year as secondary students, they are enrolled in a training program that simulates the future academic experience in one of the world’s prestigious universities. It runs for seven weeks, during which students live a typical university life and engage in many academic activities.HIGHLIGHT Misk’s Fellowship and Traineeship initiative has over 70 partnerships with international and local universities, institutes and organizations. It offers preparation programs in various fields, benefitting more than 9,000 young men and women in the Kingdom. In the summer of the second year, students join a series of training courses aimed at improving their academic skills and helping them overcome the obstacles they may face when applying to one of their target universities. During this stage, academic advisers prepare students to sit for a series of university entrance tests, train them to write personal statements and help them choose universities in line with their interests. In the final stage, the program assigns an adviser to each student to help them apply to the target universities and choose a course upon graduating from secondary school. There is a set of requirements for enrolling in the College Prep Program, including attending the first year of secondary school (grade 10) this academic year (2019-2020), graduating intermediate school with a total average of at least 90 percent, and the ability to speak and write in English. Applications are open until Nov. 9, and this includes providing reference letters and TOEFL iBT results. Candidates are selected after attending an interview, and results will be announced in January 2020.