There's a simple explanation for this which doesn't require stereotyping all Saudis as lazy: the students you met, who studied abroad, were from wealthy families who could afford to send their children internationally. Why work hard when you can have a good time for four years before rolling home to a cush job? It's the same with the rich in the USA. Unless the kids find a specific passion they mostly just fuck around. I personally know several rich kids from American families who do this, and float around between half-assed jobs for their 20s and 30s.

At the same time, Saudi is also a country that is basically dependent on expats. You've labours who are mainly from South Asia (who are treated like shit, btw) and majority of the technical/exec jobs are held by expats as well. If you were to take all the expats away tomorrow, there's no way that country is able to self sustain. I spent 5-6 years in Saudi Arabia growing up and if you have ever lived there, you know this is true.

Spent 2 years there as one of the tech expats you spoke of, and you are 100% right. The country runs on expats paid with oil money.

Fellow Aramco brat?

Nah, a South Asian that kind of grew up in Riyadh.

Nah, it's more likely than not that they are from family of average means who are being offered a cushy package by the government to study abroad and keep them out of the country for a few years until they grow past the more rebellious age.

>The rest of them passed by cheating and seemed to mostly be there to scam free college

Oh boy here I go ... I am a student at KAUST (their flagship university with an endowment in billions), I would say that the ratio of students who take it seriously vs. the ones who just fool around is 1 out of 10, and I'm being generous. I once called out some guys for partying (drunk maybe?) while at our office space and was basically told (by a mid-level exec. nonetheless) to deal with it or they would kick me out if I kept 'complaining'. No one is accountable for their actions, research quality and personal integrity are mostly an afterthought. If you point out something that is wrong you immediately get ostracized and even get some benefits removed (with some bullshit excuse). This feels like a modern version of the Stanford prison experiment, people endure it mostly because the pay is good but it is pretty clear that this thing is going nowhere. I would honestly have left if it weren't for the great relationship I developed with the professor I work with, but I just want to finish quickly and get out of here.

To the guys running the show (I know they monitor HN as well): you really need to sit down and rethink if this attitude will help you survive in the post-oil era, because I don't think it will ...

I had a similar experience with a Saudi student who left Saudi Arabia because he was concerned about what if any future he would have in a country where he felt most people just wanted an easy government job that they would get via connections and etc. He felt even if people suddenly decided to work, there simply weren't opportunities / the education system did not prepare them.

He was a good guy and hard worker, despite his and my very different views on some things we could understand / respect each other. He just wanted to be someplace where people worked hard too.

this was my experience in college as well, but i didn't really put the pieces together until i had the same experiences in my professional life.

there were those who were competent, wanted to be hands-on, and who were clearly very motivated and interested in getting things done. they were the minority. the rest were... shall we say, not workhorses.