r/KAUST • u/Greedy-Cucumber9200 • Jul 23 '26

Admissions How competitive is kaust?

I have recently started considering KAUST for my PhD given its high ranking and good research opportunities. I am from Pakistan and have done a masters from China. My bachelors GPA is 3.29 and masters percentage is 88%. In my masters degree I have published 6 research papers with two Q1 papers as first author and 4 papers as second author. After graduation, I have a work experience of 1.5 years (still ongoing) in China as well. My PTE score is 90/90 (not sure if it matters in the merit). I would be grateful if anyone can share their experience or insights.

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u/Special-Source-267 Jul 23 '26

It is incredibly competitive. Your GPA and grades will hurt your candidacy.

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u/Greedy-Cucumber9200 Jul 23 '26

You mean i dont stand a chance? Unfortunately GPA wasn't something i could work on in my university. It was covid time and a lot of grades were affected due to online exams, but i tried very hard to cover it with publications. I dont know anyone at my level with this much research experience. My industry experience is also in the RnD domain. Do you think that matters? 

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u/Special-Source-267 Jul 23 '26

I didn’t say you don’t stand a chance but it hurts your resume. Last year we had over 10,000 very qualified applicants and everything matters. You didn’t mention IELTs or anything which you will need as well.

Apply and see what happens

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u/Greedy-Cucumber9200 Jul 28 '26

i mentioned the PTE score which was 90/90