Admission Test Dates and Deadlines 2026/27: Bocconi, TOLC, SAT, Medicine, Cattolica, IMAT

Every September, in the first lessons with our fifth-year students, the question always comes in the same form: "when is the test?" As if there were just one. In reality, the pathways we work on in Milan follow four different logics: fixed-date windows (Bocconi), a calendar of single dates (SAT), rolling sessions (TOLC), rolling enrolment (Cattolica). And for Medicine, the question itself has been overtaken by the 2025 reform.

Here are the dates I checked today, 17 September 2026, directly on the official pages of Bocconi, College Board, CISIA, MUR and Cattolica. Where a date hasn't been published yet, I say so rather than making one up: on these deadlines, being a day out costs you a year.

Bocconi: what are the dates of the three 2026/27 sessions?

The three Bocconi admission sessions for the three-year programmes and Giurisprudenza (academic year 2027/28, i.e. for those graduating in June 2027) are these:

As I write this, the Early window is open and closes in twelve days. The deadlines are strict: Bocconi doesn't grant extensions, and it closes at 3pm, not at midnight. It's a detail that catches someone out every year — someone who thought they had "the evening" to upload their documents.

But the application is only half the calendar. The other half is the Bocconi online test, which can be booked from 13 July 2026 to 20 April 2027, at least 48 hours in advance and "places permitting". Each session has a last useful date for sitting it:

• Early Session: 24 September 2026
• Winter Session: 21 January 2027
• Spring Session: 22 April 2027

Notice the sequence: the test has to be taken before the application closes, not after. Anyone who reaches 27 September with the application filled in but no test has already missed the Early Session. And anyone aiming for the 24 September date often finds that slots in the final days run out: the "places permitting" in the rules isn't just a figure of speech.

For context: around 3,000 first-year places, classes of about 115 students (80 for Global Law). The test route splits in two: the Bocconi online test, SAT or ACT for the business and economics area; the Bocconi-Law test or the L-SAT (that's how the Bocconi website spells it, with a hyphen) for Giurisprudenza and Global Law. Students transferring CFU from elsewhere have a dedicated window from 8 to 27 April 2027.

If you've just started your fifth year and the Early Session is no longer realistic, the Winter Session is your session: you have until 21 January for the test. That's four months. It's exactly the timeframe we built our 50-hour Bocconi Winter Session Masterclass around, with two cohorts: one starting on 5 October 2026, the other on 2 November 2026, groups of 3 to 5 students, three lessons a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), the same schedule in person and online.

Students who tried the Early Session and didn't get into their first-choice programme can reapply in the Winter Session: in that case it's worth working on the points lost in the first attempt, and it's the most common case among those who join the Masterclass's November cohort. For a comparison between the sessions and why the Early Session pays off for fourth-year students, there's our guide to the Bocconi Early Session.

TOLC 2026/27: why isn't there "the" test date?

TOLC doesn't have a fixed calendar like Bocconi. CISIA, the consortium that runs TOLC-I (Engineering), TOLC-E (Economics), TOLC-F (Pharmacy), TOLC-S, TOLC-B, TOLC-SU, TOLC-PSI, TOLC-AV and the others, organises sessions almost every week at dozens of universities, either in person (TOLC@UNI) or from home (TOLC@CASA). Today, on the official calendar at testcisia.it, I can already see sessions on 11, 16, 17 and 18 September, then 30 September, and 2, 7 and 8 October 2026.

The one rule that actually matters in practice: registration for each session closes about a week before the test. I've seen windows along the lines of "opens 11/09, closes 18/09" for a test in that same week. So you can't decide "I'll sit the TOLC" on a Sunday for the Tuesday after.

For Politecnico di Milano, the most common destination for our Engineering students, TOLC-I sessions run mostly as TOLC@CASA, roughly once a month across the academic year: the full calendar shows dates in late January, mid-February and March 2027. I'm not listing them one by one, because CISIA itself warns that "dates are agreed with the universities but may be subject to change": the right source is the live calendar filtered for Politecnico di Milano, not an article.

What is stable, though, and it's the advice I give everyone, is the strategy. A TOLC score generally remains usable the following academic year too, so there's no point aiming for the last session before enrolment. A student who sits the TOLC-I in spring, with a semester of preparation behind them, gets two advantages: if the result isn't good enough they can retake it, and they're not gambling everything in the same week as their Maturità. Our TOLC-I preparation pathway is built around this timing, and if your only target is Politecnico di Milano, it's worth reading our comparison between TOLC-I and the Politecnico's TOL, which have different calendars and rules.

SAT 2026/27: what are the official dates and deadlines?

The SAT is the only one of these tests with a calendar of single dates published a year in advance. Here's the official College Board table for the August 2026 – June 2027 cycle (registration for the autumn dates is already open):

The first two dates have already passed. If you want the 3 October SAT, the standard deadline is tomorrow, 18 September; the late one is the 22nd. After that, six dates remain through to June 2027.

The SAT features in this article for a specific reason: Bocconi accepts it instead of its own test for the business and economics area, and students at international schools often already have it on their calendar. To fit the SAT around the Bocconi Winter Session, the 7 November and 5 December 2026 dates are the natural candidates; check the Bocconi portal for the deadline by which the score has to arrive, because College Board's release times don't line up with the test date. We have a dedicated guide on scores and conversion: SAT for Bocconi: score and strategy.

A technical point worth knowing if you're sitting it for the first time: the Digital SAT is an adaptive test — the second module of each section changes difficulty depending on how the first one went. That's why the SAT preparation we do, with adaptive mock tests, isn't the same as what we use for Bocconi or TOLC, where the format is linear.

Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine: when is the 2026/27 entrance test?

There isn't one. Under the law that came into force on 11 March 2025, restricted-entry entrance tests for Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics, and Veterinary Medicine were abolished. The Ministry put it in these exact words: "we're moving beyond restricted entry and saying goodbye to entrance tests." The system has applied since the 2025/26 academic year, so it also covers those enrolling in 2026/27.

In place of the test there's open access to the first semester, shared across all three degree programmes, followed by a selection based on performance in that semester's exams. Those who pass move into the restricted-entry track; those who don't still have the credits they've earned to use elsewhere. The mechanism is explained in detail in our guide to the Medicine filter semester.

That's why you won't find a single date for Medicine here: none exists at national level, and giving you one would be a mistake. What has genuinely changed for those preparing is the level: Physics and Chemistry now have to be tackled at university-exam level, not multiple-choice-quiz level.

And the IMAT, the English-language Medicine test?

Here I'll be cautious, because I haven't found an official statement naming it directly. The March 2025 reform abolishes the entrance test for "Medicina e Chirurgia" without distinguishing between Italian-taught and English-taught programmes, and the IMAT's long-standing domain no longer appears to be active. The reasonable conclusion is that the single fixed-date English-language test model has been superseded by the same shift to open access at state universities. If your goal is an English-taught Medicine programme at a state university, the route to check is that university's open semester, not an IMAT call for applications.

It's a different story for Humanitas University, which is private: it keeps its own selection pathway for Medicine and MEDTEC, with independent rounds unrelated to the state reform. We know this well because we prepare students for the March round with our HUMAT Masterclass. You'll only find the exact dates for the 2026/27 cycle on the university's own website, and that's where I'll point you.

Cattolica Milano: is there a written test? And is Medicine offered?

Two corrections that come up often in Milan.

The first: Cattolica's Medicine and Surgery programme exists only in Rome, at the Policlinico Gemelli. On unicatt.it, every page for the programme is tagged for the Rome campus; there is no Cattolica Medicine in Milan. Anyone searching "Cattolica Medicine test Milan" is looking for something that doesn't exist. If your target is the Gemelli, selection is independent of the state universities and has its own rules: you'll find them in our guide to the Cattolica Medicine test.

The second: for programmes at the Milan campus, the typical model isn't a fixed-date written exam but an online admission interview via Teams, which assesses reasoning and aptitude, followed by places being reserved in chronological order until they run out. The time factor here, then, isn't "test day" but how quickly you move.

A concrete example, checked against the official admissions procedure document for Giurisprudenza (LMG-01, Milan campus, 500 places, 11 of which for foreign qualifications):

• application for the interview: from 1 December 2025 at 3pm to 10 December 2026 at 11:59pm;
• place reservation, if the interview goes well: in chronological order until places run out, with a final deadline of 16 December 2026 at 11:59pm, places permitting;
• enrolment: by 12 September 2026 for those who reserved their place by 12 August 2026, otherwise within 30 days of the reservation.

This is the model, not the rule for every programme: numbers, windows and criteria vary from programme to programme, and each "Admissions and enrolment" page on unicatt.it has its own calendar. For the next cycle, the current edition opened in December; it's reasonable to expect similar timing, but the date should be read on your programme's own page, not assumed.

How to line up the deadlines without mixing up your year

The trickiest point in this whole article is working out which academic year each date refers to. The method I use with students is simple: start from the month you graduate and count backwards.

If you graduate in June 2027, your entry academic year is 2027/28. Your deadlines are the Bocconi sessions in the table above (Winter and Spring, or the Early Session if you're still in time), the TOLC sessions between now and summer 2027, the SAT dates through to June 2027, and for Cattolica the procedure that will be published for 2027/28. The Cattolica Giurisprudenza dates listed above, on the other hand, relate to the 2026/27 academic year: you only need them if you've already graduated or are reserving your place now.

If you're in your fourth year, the session that actually concerns you is the Early Session in September 2027, and the time ahead of you is exactly right for building your foundations: the heaviest part of both the Bocconi test and the TOLC-I remains maths, and a year of maths tutoring targeted at the test topics is worth more than three months of quizzes right before the date.

FAQ

Does the Medicine entrance test still exist in 2026/27?

No, at state universities it no longer exists. The law of 11 March 2025 abolished entrance tests for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine from the 2025/26 academic year. Access to the first semester is open, and selection is based on performance in that semester's exams. The deadlines to check are your university's enrolment dates and its exam calendar.

When does the 2026 Bocconi Early Session close?

The online admission application for the Early Session closes on 29 September 2026 at 3pm, and the last useful date for sitting the Bocconi online test valid for this session is 24 September 2026. Results come out in mid-November. Anyone who doesn't make it has the Winter Session, with applications from 25 November 2026 to 26 January 2027.

Can I sit the TOLC early, before my fifth year or before summer?

Yes, and it's the choice I recommend. TOLC sessions run almost weekly all year round, the score generally remains usable the following academic year, and anyone who sits it in spring can retake it if needed. Always check the score's validity in your university's call for applications, and check open sessions on the CISIA calendar.

Can you study Medicine at Cattolica Milano?

No. The Medicine and Surgery programme at Università Cattolica exists only at the Rome campus, at the Policlinico Gemelli, with its own selection process. In Milan, Cattolica offers other programmes, most of which admit students through an online interview and chronological place reservation, not a written test.

Does the SAT replace the Bocconi test?

For the business and economics area, yes: Bocconi accepts the SAT or ACT instead of its own online test. For Giurisprudenza and Global Law you need the Bocconi-Law test or the L-SAT. The useful SAT dates for the 2026/27 Winter Session are 7 November and 5 December 2026, but check the Bocconi portal for the score delivery deadline.

Will these dates apply next year too?

No. Bocconi's windows, the SAT dates and Cattolica's procedures change every year, and TOLC sessions are updated continuously. The dates in this article were checked on 17 September 2026 against official sources; we update this piece every year, but always check the university's own portal before a deadline.

If Your Deadline Is the Bocconi Winter Session

You have four months, and the Bocconi test has no official manual you can prepare from on your own. Tell us about your situation: we'll look together at where you stand in maths and reasoning, and give you an honest answer on whether the 5 October or the 2 November cohort is the right one for you.

Discover the Bocconi Winter Session Masterclass →

If you'd rather have a one-to-one pathway than a group, our Bocconi test preparation with a dedicated tutor follows the same schedule of deadlines. Book your first lesson and let's start.

Keep reading:

• Early Session Bocconi: the complete guide
• SAT for Bocconi: score and strategy
• Medicine filter semester: how it works