Her mother also worries that Saudi men may be reluctant to marry not only Ms. Al Mashabi but her sisters if Ms. Al Mashabi brings Western ways back to the family. Ms. Al Mashabi says that many of her female friends who were scholarship students return home only to move back abroad, to Dubai or elsewhere. Many who come back to stay are unhappy, she said.
In the Saudi kingdom, more than 40% of young Saudi women job-seekers are unemployed because custom and religious code limit where they can work.
Indeed, conservative Saudi clerics have targeted the kingdom's scholarship program, saying it is detaching young Saudi men and women from their religious mooring. "The scholarships dragged woe onto our nation," Sheik Nasser al-Omar told Saudi Arabia's al Sharq newspaper in May.
Elite members of Saudi society have long placed faith in U.S. universities. There are more members of King Abdullah's cabinet holding U.S. doctorates—at least seven—than in President Obama's, which includes two, not counting honorary doctorates. Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al Saud, brought closer in the line of succession by the June death of brother Prince Nayef, could one day become the first U.S.-educated Saudi king, thanks to his bachelor's degree from Redlands College in Redlands, Calif. in the 1960s.
Saudi students have been linked to U.S. universities since the first days of the kingdom. Standard Oil of California—based near the University of Southern California in Los Angeles—signed the first major oil deal with King Abdullah's father, in the 1930s. After that, many upper class Saudis sent their sons and a few daughters to USC.
"That first wave going to the U.S.—they had tremendous impact on the way this country developed," said Abdul Rahman al Zamil, a Saudi businessman and former deputy commerce minister who was one of six brothers to become a USC alum.
But the open door for Saudi students slammed shut in 2001.
"You can't imagine how they treated you," said Sami al Obeid, a Saudi businessman who attended the University of Oregon in 2005-2006. Mr. al Obeid said his U.S. visa was revoked mid-school year, without explanation, and he never finished his U.S. degree.
U.S. universities said they lost about $40 million a year in tuition from Middle Eastern students after 9/11.
After the 2005 meeting between King Abdullah and Mr. Bush, the U.S. government cleared a six-month backlog of Saudi visa applications, said Ms. Townsend, the former homeland security adviser. The visa application process was overhauled to be more efficient.
Behind the scenes, security was tightened. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia's domestic intelligence agency intensified cooperation and screening of visa applicants, Ms. Townsend said. Diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks show U.S. and Saudi officials discussing increased monitoring of Saudi students in the U.S., and follow-up interviews by Saudi intelligence of Saudi students while home on school holidays.
On the U.S. political front, top State Department officials briefed members of Congress privately, detailing security measures, Ms. Townsend said. Supporters hoped to head off any scenario in which a member of Congress would "stand up and begin to lambaste the Saudis publicly," she said.
The heightened security for the students has yielded rewards. Both U.S. and Saudi experts credit Saudi counterterror officials under Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a U.S. university alum, with alerting Americans to two Al-Qaeda-linked bomb plots since 2010. Cooperation on the student applications helped bring Saudi and U.S. intelligence agencies to a "level of transparency as good as it is with Britain," Ms. Townsend said.
A version of this article appeared July 27, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Saudi Students Flood In As U.S. Reopens Door.
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