KAUST

[A.N.Other]

This is all post grad, there is no undergraduate stuff going on at KAUST, though they will completely fund your undergraduate degree (Fees paid, $500 per term for books, $2500 for a new laptop + monthly stipend which varies depending on where you live) as long as you get onto the scholarship program.

What are you going to do there then?

 

[davestar_delux]

If it is a compound you are staying in, there will probably be home-brew at weekends and you will probably partake as well given there isn't a great deal else to do.

Many of the strict laws are flouted but getting caught is very serious. It's a very restricted society and prepare to feel trapped by it, moreso as you are a 2nd class citizen to most Saudis. You can drink in embassies as well but it is ridiculously expensive. You can go driving in the desert which is fun for a while. Lots of people go to Dubai for weekends of debauchery.

Getting anything done, especially by public officials, is difficult as well, they will tell you "tomorrow, if God wills" which you aren't allowed to argue with and generally means they will do something when they can be bothered which isn't often.

The security threat is very real, lots of what is happening in Saudi goes unreported here.

 

[Bipolar Kittens]

but he isn't going to South Africa. It is a totally different place and different reason to not want to go. there is no parallel to be drawn here.

Maybe i should have worded my post better, but I wasn't trying to compare the two, was just making the point that places are often not as bad as people make them out to be and i'm willing to bet that the vast majority of posters here have never even been to Saudi so have no basis to **** the place off other than what they've read on the internet.

 

[Lagmeister]

What are you going to do there then?

I am going to be doing a Computer Science Masters, though that could be practically anything, though there is a chance for me to do practically anything within the field, Im doing stuff with Biometrics and Information Security this year (another MSc here also funded, yay im popular). Though I am quite interested in ubiquitous computing and concurrency as well atm.

 

[Slinwagh]

Your going to be radicalised.