IMS Milan
The University
[Disclaimer]: The minimal IMAT scores differ from year to year. Also, keep in mind that the EU and Non-EU ranking lists work entirely differently.
The following are the scores for acceptance to the academic year 2020/2021:
- EU minimal score: 45 (last ranking)
- Non-EU minimal score: 49.2(1st ranking)
The class consists of 44 Eu and 16 Non-Eu spots, allowing for a good student-professor relationship.
Lectures are normally held from 8:30 till 17:30, but during the pandemic, online classes have a slightly different timing from 9:30 till 18:30.
As lecture attendance is mandatory and strictly regulated in Milan, you might want to consider what would it feel like to have most of your day in class. Keep in mind that most other med schools in Italy have their lectures either in the morning or the afternoon, leaving space for more self-study time and the possibility of accommodating a part-time job.
You might consider long hours in the university either an advantage or a downside, as the way you learn best is strictly individual. But as a medical student in Italy with a bit of experience behind my back, I advise you to pay more attention to the day-to-day details rather than the precise position of the University in the national ranking, for example. Your bread and butter activities, such as your everyday commute, lecture hours, attendance, and exam requirements, will individually influence you and therefore be the major factors dictating your performance.
Lectures are held in the suburbs of Milan, in the Segrate area, in the LITA building. To reach it, you’ll need to ride it almost till the very end combined with a 10 min shuttle afterward.
This is what a typical classroom looks like in LITA and the rest of the rooms are pretty much the same. Upper floors of the building house research activities, so students can ask to attend the labs as an elective activity if they are interested in this area.
Progression requirements along the years make sure students don’t miss an important piece of knowledge before attempting to study a more advanced topic. This means that you’ll need to successfully pass certain exams from the 2nd year, to proceed to related exams from 3rd year for example. In case you don’t pass such a progression exam, you will need to repeat the year.
Bear in mind, that most other universities won’t make you repeat a year for a missing exam, so this is another factor to consider when picking a med school.
Some people like the pressure this limit puts on them because this way they’ll be stimulated to finish medical school within the 6 years planned. Others find the extra pressure unnecessary and even harmful to their performance, as medical school is demanding enough by itself.
When not required to pass all exams to proceed to the next year, medical students in Italy (and those in the Italian-taught med course in Milan in particular), spend 7,5 years to complete medical school on average.
One of the biggest perks of studying in Milan IMS is the private hospital where most of the clinical training is performed: Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda. Only a small part of the practicals is held in various hospitals from the University hospital networks, which also brings the advantage of getting familiar with a different type of hospital organization.
Advanced students in the upper years are allowed to use a Laparoscopy Lab – an especially exciting hands-on experience that certainly doesn’t happen everywhere.
You’ll be required to reach a B2 Italian level at the end of the 2nd year to be allowed to the clinical training in the hospital.
Accommodation
IMS Milan provides university dorms at lower prices than what you’d normally pay for private accommodation in Milan. The cons are that they’re situated quite far away in another small town called Lodi. Rooms are mostly shared and it’s quite competitive to get in, so you’ll need to apply well in advance.
Milan is probably the most expensive city to live in in Italy. Following the rule Northern bigger cities are more expensive than Southern smaller ones, rent in Milan is more expensive than in Rome and about twice more expensive than in Pavia (which is just 30 min away from it).
A single private room in a shared apartment costs around 650€ and a studio apartment (monolocale) starts from 800€. Prices vary according to the area as the more central the higher you’ll pay. You need to keep in mind, however, that if you chose a more distant neighborhood, especially one not close to a metro line, you’ll be looking to a lengthy (to put it gently) everyday commute.
(c) Featured images, thanks to Gabriela Sansoni’s personal archive

Read all reviews and add yours!At one of Europe’s scientific powerhouse state universities, thee IMS-Milan’s English-language MD program educates top-level international researchers and clinicians. Don’t forget to visit the IMS Society and the IMS faculty.

A Visit to the New English Med School in Turin
The universities of Turin, Bologna, and Florence are all in various stages of planning an English-language med school. Here’s a look at Turin.

Student Xhorxhi Kaçi’s Welcome Speech at IMS Milan White Coat Day
“…that paragraph you skipped and weren’t asked at the exam? That knowledge might have made a patient’s life a little easier.”

Why Tomorrow’s Pavia-Milan Football Match Matters
It’s not just about the rivalry. It’s about friendship.

How to Find Housing in Milan
Here are easy steps to finding housing for students of IMS Milan — and perhaps also Naples, Bari, Rome, and Pavia.

We Belong to the World
by João Victor Cornicelli “I am going to become a doctor, doing the best I can for the people that surround me.”

How To Live Inexpensively — and Well — in Milan
Don’t believe the rumors that studying at IMS Milan is expensive. You can live very cheaply — and well — in this cosmopolitan, world-class city.

Student Support Services at the University of Milan
A month and a half ago, my dad, across the ocean, was diagnosed with cancer. I needed someone to talk to about it — and the University of Milan came through.

Meet the Professors: Chiarella Sforza
“Teaching is an interactive activity … where everyone plays a key role. If successful, all of this is extremely rewarding.”

North Korean Contemporary Art, on Display in Milan
The art — and the story of how it got to Milan — is incredible.

An Art Exhibition on Migration and Humanitarian Aid
We visited an emotionally-moving art exhibition, on human migration, co-sponsored by Emergency, similar to Doctors Without Borders, based near IMS-Milan.

IMS-Milan Is Applying for California Accreditation
The International Medical School of the University of Milan is taking a major step toward attempting to ensure that its graduates will be able to do residencies throughout the entire United States. It is the first English-language med school in Italy to apply for...

Cycling Around the Milan Countryside
From Milan and the neighborhoods around IMS, there are beautiful bike trails to help you get your mind off medical studies, or reflect upon what you have learned.

Scenes of Spring at IMS-Milan
Two decades ago, I spent the spring and summer in Italy, in Tuscany, on an archaeological dig. The thing that struck me back then about the country was how alive it was. I have since seen a lot of places -- including the true tropics -- but there is something unique...

Can You Do a US Residency After English-Language Italian Med School?
Can I practice and specialize in the States? A hot topic and quite a subject of debate over the years. But sit tight cause we're here to make your day - big changes are coming ahead! As an Italian graduate, your degree is automatically recognized just...

Problem-Based Learning at IMS-Milan
During problem-based learning, medical students analyze, in teams, a real-life case scenario, step-by-step, as if they were seeing the patient themselves. How does this play out specifically in an international medical school? At IMS-Milan, this month, we began...

Inside the Anatomy Labs at the University of Milan
This week, we first-years at IMS-Milan went for our first field practical, to learn how to stain slides for clinical observation. Our professor took us to the university's Department of Anatomy. What we found was a hundred years' worth of very cool equipment for...

Our Furry Friend at IMS Milan
Many afternoons, a cute little creature greets us on our way home from school. Meet Charisse. A brook runs by LITA, the home of IMS-Milan. The brook is actually part of an artificial network of irrigation canals that traverses the municipality of Segrate, wherein LITA...

Milan to the Swiss Alps
Milan is only about a half-hour from the Swiss Alps, a great getaway for a busy med student. Let's take a ride. You can actually see the Alps from IMS Milan. A ticket to the Swiss town of Chiasso, at their foot, is 5.50 €, and takes 33 minutes by direct train. On...

IMS Milan Football Season Opener: 2nd-Years Win in Pouring Rain
In the inaugural match of IMS intramural football, the 2nd-years have beat the 1st-years 7-5 on a stormy Saturday in Milan-Lambrate. Fans and players then retired to my apartment for tea, supper, and party games. The tightly-fought victory by the second years was...

Our First Real Look at Disease
Until today, in the first-year class at IMS Milan, we have only spoken about disease. Today, under the microscope, we actually looked at it -- and the experience was profound. Our professor semi-surprised us, this week, with real-life medicine. Last night, she gave us...

A Surprising Night Out in Milan: East Market
On Sunday last week, my classmates came over to my place for a party, at my apartment. Afterwards, we all walked around the block — and could not believe what we found.
![How to Study Medicine in English in Italy [video]](https://www.medschool.it/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/featuredimage.jpg)
How to Study Medicine in English in Italy [video]
A video primer on international MD programs at Italian public universities

My First Exam at IMS Milan
We are getting an incredibly rigorous medical education. That is what I learned from my first exam.

Milan Has, Possibly, the World’s Best English-Language Medical Bookstore
You would think that the world’s best medical bookstore would be in an English-speaking country, right? Actually, it very well might be in Italy.

Italy’s Superb Health Care System
One surprisingly good reason to study medicine in Italy is the health care system itself.

Why Studying Histology is Like Learning the Kanji
Shape is the expression of function — or meaning.

The Amazing Embryo
The takeaway from my first full day of exam prep was the jaw-dropping wonder of the beginning of human development.

Two Weeks to Exams
Our first microanatomy, embryology, and histology exam is in two weeks. Here is what it is like to be buried in the textbooks at a med school in English in Italy.

Meet the Professors: Massimiliano Pagani
“I really love teaching at the International Medical School, because it is an amazing environment, with people from all over the world.”

Milan → New York → Milan
One of the many reasons I chose Milan to study medicine is that it has the most numerous, and least expensive, transit connections to and from Italy. To illustrate, here is a chronicle of my wonderful trip home in New York for the holidays.

List of Countries Represented in Our Class
I have spoken individually with (almost) all 46 of my amazing classmates in the first year at the IMS Milan, and asked them what country, or countries, they represent. There are 21 countries in total.

The Elegant Milan Tram
The Milan tram system — the city’s above-ground streetcar network — is an elegant form of public transit, little-known to the rest of the world. Let us take a ride.

Meet the Professors: Roberto Cerbino
“Always think. Be curious and positively critical. Try to change your angle. Take your time to understand, because understanding is forever.”

Studying the Heart
I was scared to study the heart (literally, not metaphorically). However, doing so has turned out to be a pleasure. How? 1) I have been systematically making doodles based on Gray’s Anatomy for Students, and 2) I got to play with a ceramic heart model. In the process, I have learned important lessons both about how to study, and about overcoming the fear of failure in med school.

Three Fascinating Things We Learned in the First Month
We are in the middle of a two-day vacation for the Italian and Milanese holidays of the Festa di Sant’Ambrogio and Immacolata, here at the International Medical School at the University of Milan. We have finished just over one month of studies, and within this time, learned some amazing concepts. Here are three examples.

More Shops around IMS Milan
Today during lunch, we went out again for a short walk around LITA, home of IMS Milan. There is some good shopping — particularly, eating — within five minutes by foot.

You Can See the Mountains from IMS Milan!
This afternoon, as I was biking to school, I looked at the horizon and saw something I had not yet seen from Milan: the Alps. It was quite a surprise.

Milan IMS Convocation 2015
On Friday, the International Medical School at the University of Milan held its convocation, or what it calls Welcome Day, at LITA, our laboratory-learning facility. An assembly, with speakers, was followed by a cheerful reception.

Meet the Professors: Nicoletta Gagliano
“Continuous curiosity, and the desire to learn, should represent the fuel of a great medical student.”

A Study System
Studying medicine in Italy, in English, has some unique implications for note-taking. Here is a system I have devised.

All About Textbooks
It is nearly impossible to master the discipline of medicine without textbooks. At the IMS at the University of Milan, we have considerable choice about the textbooks we use, and a number of different ways of acquiring them.

Our Study of Histology
Histology, the study of biological tissues, is a fun subject in the first year at the IMS Milan. We observe — literally — the human body at tiny scales.

The Neighborhood Around IMS Milan
Yesterday, I was craving pizza for lunch. So I went out searching for it, in the neighborhood around the building where our classes are held, here at the IMS at the University of Milan. What I found was a pleasant surprise.

How We Learn Italian
The non-fluent speakers of Italian at the IMS, University of Milan, had our first language courses today. Here is how the program’s system works of teaching Italian to second-language students.

A Look Inside LITA
The International Medical School of the University of Milan has its first and second-year courses at LITA, Italy’s Laboratorio Interdisciplinare Tecnologie Avanzate (Advanced Technology Interdisciplinary Laboratory). The facility permits us to have direct contact with international-level researchers in biomedical sciences.

Biking to School (and Other Transport)
Among big Italian cities, Milan is particularly well-suited to biking. This is because Milan is flat, and has, relatively, orderly driving, and a high number of bike lanes. Sidewalk bicycling is also tolerated. So, I bike to school.

On Language
One interesting feature of the international medical schools in Italy is that you have professors teaching, and students learning, in for what most of them is a second language: English. What is this like — at least here at the IMS at the University of Milan?
It is magnificent.

Types of Teaching
Here at the International Medical School at the University of Milan, professors have different styles of teaching, all of which are suited to different subject areas.

Where We Study, and Eat
The first and second-year students at the International Medical School at the University of Milan have classes and labs in a building called LITA, which stands for Laboratorio Interdisciplinare Tecnologie Avanzate (“Advanced Interdisciplinary Technology Laboratory”).

How Exams Work
We learned today a bit about the structure of our exams, here at the International Medical School at the University of Milan.

The Promise of Milan
The English-language international medical schools at the Italian public universities — and particularly, the University of Milan, the country’s largest research institution — are offering something revolutionary in medical education. They are making it possible for students from anywhere in the world, regardless of income, to attend a Western European-quality medical school, in the language in which most international research is conducted -– that is, English.
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IMS – Milan
Number of students 50/year
Percent international ~50%
Faculty:student ratio 4.5:1
Tuition (all students) 693 to 3,938 €/year
University of Milan
QS World University Ranking, clinical medicine #1 in Italy, #79 worldwide
European partner universities Amsterdam, Barcelona, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Freiburg, Geneva, Heidelberg, Helsinki, Leiden, KU Leuven, Imperial College London, University College London, Lund, Ludwig-Maximilian Munich, Oxford, Paris-Sorbonne, Paris-Sud, Strasbourg, Utrecht, Zurich
Number of students 61,000
Number of campuses 7
Number of teaching hospitals 9
Number of libraries 113
Year of foundation of main teaching hospital 1456
Milan’s Nobel Prize Winners
Ricardo Giacconi, Physics 2002 • Dario Fo, Economics 1997 • Renato Dulbecco, Physiology and Medicine 1975 • Eugenio Montale, Economics 1975 • Giuilo Natta, Chemistry 1963 • Salvatore Quasimodo, Economics 1959 • Ernesto Moneta, Peace 1907