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Small Peninsula College Drawing Royalty From Around The World

ATHERTON (CBS SF) -- A small college in Atherton has drawn in over 100 members from a royal family with its prestige as a top business school.

"Several family members attended in the late '60s and early '70s, and it was through them that we were introduced to Menlo College," student Abdullah Alakeel said.

The individualized attention of a small school helped draw the royals away from larger schools like Stanford.

"It has a big name back home.  And, several big businessmen in Saudi Arabia have attended Menlo, which kind of puts it up there with the big name schools," Menlo College student Manhal Elhein said.

Prince Abdulaziz Al Saud credits a boarding school friend and fellow Saudi with encouraging him to attend Menlo College.  He is just the latest in a long line of members of the Saudi Royal Family, and that country's elite to study at the small college over the past 50-years.

"A lot of my friends didn't know, or maybe still don't know about me being a prince," Al Saud said.

Al Saud and many of his classmates are pursuing business degrees at the school.

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