College Preparatory Center

Saudi Aramco's College Preparatory Center (CPC) is a highly selective program run by the Saudi national oil company; Saudi Aramco (established in 1985). It begins with a 9-month program of study at the Industrial Training Center in Dhahran, after which students move on to universities around the globe to finish their education.

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CPC Campus - Building D

In its campus in Dhahran North, this institute prepares the students in different fields; engineering, earth sciences, to business and management. The admission rate among the applicants who met the requirements this year (2004-2005) is 1.20%, 148 admitted from a pool of 12,300 qualified applicants.

In addition to college orientation, intensive English language, and college-level science courses, the CPC also offers all standardised tests; AP, TOEFL, SAT I, SAT II, and IELTS for its students free of charge. Students also receive a salary of about $8,000 for their attendance. Each student is assigned in a Saudi ARAMCO department which is related to his concentration of study. Some refer to this institue as the "potential managers center", considering the fact that graduates are usually offered better positions in the company than other employees.

All students - after passing the first year in CPC - will have a full scholarship, mostly to the most competitive universities in the United States and United Kingdom, all expenses covered. Moreover, each Exploration Department scholar (those who study Geology or Geophysics) will have the opportunity to continue graduate studies up to the PhD degree, while receiving a salary of full time employees.

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CPC Campus - Central lawn

Upon graduation, the CPC graduates begin working in Saudi Aramco in a close grade to managers (comparison: degree of engineering degree holders not CPC graduates: 10, CPC graduates' initial grade: 15, managers' minimum grade: 18).

The CPC campus is now being built separately from the ITC, most likely inside Dhahran.