Universities
Public vs Private
In Italy, you can find 2 types of medical schools: Public & Private. The main differences between the two being the admission test and the fees. Both private and public universities have different strengths and weaknesses
Public
There are 14 public International Medical Schools in Italy:
The public International Medical Schools offer quality medical training on a Western European level and unlike private universities, public universities only use the IMAT, meaning that the IMAT allows you to apply to all of the universities listed above (click on one of the logos above to learn more about their respective English-taught international MD degrees). Keep in mind, there is no fixed IMAT score in order to be admitted!
The admission will depend on the other test takers applying to the same university and how well you do in comparison to them. When looking at the previous years, a good stat to highlight is the minimal score in order to be admitted into a university, this will give you an idea (not set in stone as the test takers and the difficulty of the IMAT perceived by students changes every year) of the score you will need to have in order to be admitted into said university. Another good insight this stat provides is the competitiveness when comparing all the universities.
Over the years we can see that this stat has been very consistent, the top 3 last admitted IMAT scores have always been the highest for:
– IMS Milan
– Pavia Harvey
– Rome Sapienza
Another big advantage that the public schools offer is the tuition fees, they are tailored to each student’s economic status (family’s income and net worth) and are generally between 137€ – 5250€ per year for both EU and non-EU students. When comparing them to the private universities, you will notice that even the highest fee is almost 4 times smaller than the tuition fee of a private university.
Private
There are 5 private International Medical Schools in Italy:
Private Medical Schools that offer an English Medical Course are newer than their public counterpart and are not governmnet funded. This is translated into their tuition fees which are in between 7000€ – 20000€ per annum and is more in line with other private medical schools around Europe. However, these fees can be reduced through:
– Scholarships
Most private medical schools offer some form of scholarship. Some scholarships are offered prior to enrollment meaning they will be taking a look at your school report cards as well as conducting an interview to check your motivation. Some are offered during your years of study and will depend on motivation, the average of marks you obtain at exams and experience.
– Tuition Fee Calculations
Some private medical schools also offer a fee calculation that is tailored to the student’s economic status (similar to how the public schools evaluate the students status).
The private schools also host their own admission test that are independant from one another and independant from the IMAT (Humanitas University’s test is called the HUMAT, UniCamillius’s is called the UCAT, etc …), meaning you will need to sit for each exam individually if you wish to apply to multiple universities. The good news is that the test dates do not overlap and in theory, students can sit for every private university admission test if they wish to do so.