How to Start Med School in Italy via the IMAT

Every candidate we've mentored has asked some version of this at the very beginning: "okay, but what do I actually do first?" You don't need a finished plan on day one - you barely need one a few months in.

Starting med school in Italy through the IMAT comes down to three things: knowing the exam itself, registering through Universitaly when the window opens, and gathering a short list of documents (passport, diploma, transcript, and for non-EU applicants, consulate paperwork) before deadlines get close. What you do need is a rough idea of that paperwork early, so it stops feeling like a black box. This is that starting checklist.

What you're actually signing up for

The IMAT is the entrance exam that decides admission to English-taught Medicine, Dentistry, and Veterinary Medicine programmes at Italian public universities. It's a single national test, held once a year, and your score plus your university preferences determine which seat, if any, you get offered. We've written about what the IMAT actually is elsewhere on the site - this piece is specifically about the logistics around it, not the test content.

The account you'll eventually need: Universitaly

Universitaly is the Ministry's official portal, and it's where most of the actual process happens - registering for the IMAT, listing your university preferences, and (for non-EU applicants) an earlier pre-enrollment step. You don't need to touch it today. You do need to know it exists and that it's the source of truth, not a forum post or a prep-course PDF.

The documents worth starting to gather now

None of these need to be sorted this week. But they're the kind of thing that takes longer than expected once you actually start, so it's worth knowing the list early:

• A valid passport with enough remaining validity to cover the year you'd be starting.
• Your high school diploma or leaving certificate, plus an official transcript of your grades.
• For non-EU applicants specifically: either a Dichiarazione di Valore (Declaration of Value) from the Italian consulate in your country, or a CIMEA Statement of Comparability - which one applies depends on your consulate, so this is a "check with them directly" item, not a guess-from-a-blog item.
• Passport-style photos, the kind most official applications ask for.
• Proof of English proficiency, if the specific university you're targeting requires it - this varies by university, not universal across all of them.
• A completed pre-evaluation on Universitaly, which some universities require before you're even allowed to register for the IMAT itself.

EU vs non-EU: why the paperwork differs

The exam is identical for everyone. The application track around it isn't - non-EU applicants generally go through an earlier pre-enrollment step, different consulate involvement, and often earlier deadlines than EU applicants. We've written a full breakdown of the EU vs non-EU process separately, since it deserves more than a paragraph here.

Roughly how the year unfolds

In broad strokes: a registration window opens on Universitaly, the IMAT itself is held once, results and rankings follow, and then there's a separate round of enrollment paperwork once you actually have an offer. The exact dates move every year and are published on Universitaly when they're confirmed - we're deliberately not printing specific dates here, because a "how to start" guide shouldn't go stale the moment the Ministry updates its calendar.

The one thing that changes every year: verify everything directly

Consulate requirements, exact deadlines, and even which documents are mandatory can shift from cycle to cycle and country to country. Treat this article as a starting checklist for what to gather, not a substitute for Universitaly's own instructions and whatever your specific Italian consulate or embassy tells you. When those two disagree with anything you've read online, including here, go with them.

Nobody starts this process with everything figured out. The candidates who end up ahead aren't the ones who had a perfect plan on day one - they're the ones who knew what to start gathering early enough that it never became a fire drill.