تفوّق
Academic excellence
Course selection that keeps doors open, test scores in the top percentiles, and the academic depth selective universities look for before anything else.
About Himmah Prep
Built on himmah.
Himmah Prep is built on the foundation of himmah (Arabic: همّة): ambition, resolve, and determination. The inner drive that distinguishes exceptional students from everyone else. We work with a small number of families in the Gulf each year, and we are selective on purpose.
- 2020
- Founded by Harvard and UPenn graduates
- 0%
- Ivy League–credentialed counselors
- 0
- Gulf countries served
- 0%
- College acceptance track record
همّة
- himmah /ˈhɪm.ma/
- Ambition, resolve, high aspiration. In classical Arabic, the strength of purpose that carries a person past what is comfortable toward what is worth doing. It is the quality we look for in a student, and the one we build the programme around.
01Why we started
Too many talented students were being prepared the wrong way.
A narrow emphasis on test scores. Applications treated as checklists. Advisors who never sat in the rooms they claimed to know. We wanted a programme that reflected what top universities actually look for: academic depth, real character, strategic clarity, and leadership that sticks.
So we built one. Three pillars, end to end, sequenced into a 12–24 month plan inside our private portal. Everything stays in-house: your counselor sets the strategy and our own specialist tutors handle each piece, so there is no patchwork of tutors and no chaos in November.
Five years in, our students have been admitted to every Ivy League university, MIT, Stanford, the UC system, Oxford, and Cambridge. The track record is real, and we keep the programme small so every student gets the attention it takes.
02Three pillars
What every student gets.
شخصية
Character building
Leadership workshops, public speaking, and a project the student actually leads. The things admissions officers notice, and the things students keep.
استعداد
Future readiness
A school list across the US and the UK, summers that matter, and applications that tell one clear story, sequenced so nothing collides.
03The people
Counselors who got in themselves.
Himmah Prep was founded by graduates of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Counselors are Ivy League graduates who set the strategy; tutors are top scorers who deliver the test prep. Everyone works from the same plan.
Counselors
Ivy League graduates
Lead strategy for each family: the school list, the timeline, activities, summers, essays, and interviews for the US and the UK. Every counselor holds a degree from an Ivy League university.
Harvard · Penn · Yale · CornellTutors
Top scorers
Specialist tutors for the SAT, ACT, IELTS, and TOEFL, chosen for their own scores in the top percentiles and trained on the counselor's plan, so the student hears one strategy from everyone.
1500+ SAT · 33+ ACT04Since 2020
How we got here.
Founded in Jeddah
Started by Harvard and UPenn graduates who had sat in the rooms most consultants only describe, for Gulf students being prepared the wrong way.
First Ivy League admits
The first cohort placed at Cornell, Penn, and Berkeley. The programme grew from test prep into a full admissions strategy.
The Himmah portal
A private workspace for every family: one board for every school, essay drafts with counselor comments, and every deadline in one place.
Every Ivy, and Oxbridge
Admits at all eight Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford, the UC system, Oxford, and Cambridge. Registered as Himmah Prep Company in Saudi Arabia.
US and UK, one plan
UCAS, Oxbridge admissions tests, and interviews added alongside the US programme, so students applying to both work from a single timeline.
05Where our students go
Acceptances to every Ivy.
A partial list of universities Himmah Prep students have been admitted to since 2020. See the full results →
06Free consultation
Ready to build a strategy that actually works?
A thirty-minute consultation with a senior counselor. No obligation, just a candid read on what's possible for the student.
Photograph: Radcliffe Camera by Julian Herzog, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).