How to Get Into Bocconi 2027/28: Requirements, Test or SAT, Sessions and What to Do in September

"How do I get into Bocconi" is the question almost every fourth and fifth-year student brings to us, and it usually carries five more questions inside it: can I apply already, do I need the test or is the SAT enough, which session, what score, how much does it cost. This guide answers all of them, in order, at the level of detail you need to decide; for each point you'll also find a link to go deeper. One note: what follows is the structure of the sessions, not the exact dates, which for 2027/28 you should check on the official Bocconi admissions page. And one thing we tell students on day one of our courses: Bocconi selection is a formula with two variables, and by September one of them is already locked in.

Who Can Apply to Bocconi for 2027/28?

Anyone starting their fifth year can apply through the Early Session, and anyone already in their fifth year can apply through the Winter and Spring Sessions. The assessment considers only two elements: your test score, worth 55%, and your grades from the third-to-last and second-to-last year, worth 45%. No essay, no interview, no extracurricular activity factors into the calculation.

The detail that surprises families most is about the school record: what counts is third and fourth year, not fifth, because your final year isn't finished yet when you apply. So if you're reading this guide in September of your fifth year, half your school record is already written; the only variable you can still act on is the test, and it's the one that carries the most weight. If you're in third or fourth year, the logic runs the other way: every grade from these two years feeds into the formula, and a year of maths left to slide costs you twice, on your average and on the heaviest section of the test.

Even before the test comes the choice of programme, and with it the choice of language: only Economia Aziendale - Management and Law are taught in Italian, all the others in English. This isn't a detail to leave until after you get your score, because every application has a cost and its own ranking: the comparison between the three-year programmes is in the guide to choosing your Bocconi degree for 2027/28.

Bocconi Test or SAT: What Are the Two Routes In?

There are two routes: the Bocconi Test, the university's own online exam with 50 questions in 75 minutes, or a Digital SAT or ACT score, accepted for every programme except Law and Global Law, which require the LSAT. From 2026 you can submit both scores: Bocconi automatically uses the higher one, through its own conversion tables.

The Bocconi Test has four sections, inside a single 75-minute timer that you manage yourself: Maths (24 fast problem-solving questions, patterns and mental arithmetic), Reading Comprehension (11), Numerical Reasoning (6, reading graphs and tables) and Critical Thinking (9, analysing arguments and spotting fallacies). Since 2026, Critical Thinking has grown from 4 to 9 questions and Maths has dropped from 28 to 24: the test now leans more on reasoning than it used to, but maths is still nearly half the test. You sit it from home with Safe Exam Browser, a webcam and a second monitoring device; you get up to four attempts per cycle, in a window that runs from mid-July to early April, at €60 each. The section-by-section detail, with suggested timing, is in the guide to the Bocconi Test structure and scoring.

The SAT makes most sense if you're already preparing it for other universities or you're on an international curriculum: one test, two applications. For the English-taught programmes, a competitive SAT score is around 1400. If the SAT wasn't already in your plans, the practical rule we give in class is simple: the Bocconi Test is the shorter route, because it gives you four attempts and doesn't ask you to prepare a second exam. If you're unsure, the full comparison is in SAT for Bocconi: Score and Preparation.

Which Session Should You Choose: Early, Winter or Spring?

There are three sessions, but they're not equal. Early (September) and Winter (late November–January) together fill 90-95% of places; Spring (late March–mid-April) is left with 5-10%. If you've just finished fourth year, the Early Session is the highest-leverage move you can make: you can have your place secured before fifth year even starts.

The Early Session is designed exactly for students who've just finished fourth year: you apply with your third and fourth year grades already complete, and if it goes well, you go through fifth year and your Maturità already knowing where you're headed. Winter is the round with the most applicants, the one where most fifth-year students apply. Spring picks up the leftover places, and it isn't a second chance on equal footing with the other two. The exact windows change from year to year, and for 2027/28 you should check them on the official page linked above; how the first session works, requirements included, is in the complete guide to the Bocconi Early Session.

In our own courses the split is clear-cut: students who arrive in September with fourth year just finished work towards the Early Session, everyone else towards Winter. For this second group we built the small-group Bocconi Test Masterclass, 3-5 students, starting on 5 October and 2 November 2026: eleven weeks, three lessons a week, to arrive at Winter with your maths up to speed and your critical thinking trained on three-option questions.

What Score Do You Need to Get Into Bocconi?

A test below 17/50 isn't considered valid; based on past cohorts' experience, 35 out of 50 is the score from which an application becomes competitive, and for Mathematical and Computing Sciences for AI you need at least 11 points in the maths section alone. This isn't an official threshold: the score combines with your grades, and competition varies from programme to programme.

The scoring works like this: $+1$ for every correct answer, $0$ for every question left blank, $-0.2$ for every wrong answer on the five-option questions and $-0.33$ on critical thinking questions, which have three options. Someone who answers all 50 questions and gets 15 wrong, 3 of them critical thinking, ends up at

This is where the fear of the penalty comes from, and from it the opposite mistake: leaving answers blank out of caution. The penalty is lighter than a "fair" one would be ($-0.25$ would break even on five-option questions), so as soon as you can rule out even one option, answering has a positive expected value. Ten questions left blank after ruling out two options are worth, on average, about $10 \cdot 0.20 = 2$ points: the difference between 33 and 35. The full workings are in the article on the test structure; what matters here is the conclusion: the real opponent isn't the penalty, it's time.

Seventy-five minutes for 50 questions works out to 90 seconds a question, and maths asks for more than that. The first mock test we run in class almost always ends the same way: the last maths questions left blank, not because they're hard, but because time ran out on the middle ones, where a student with a straight-A average sets up the full calculation instead of estimating. The tactics for that section, including orders of magnitude and the patterns that keep coming back, are in Bocconi Test Maths: Speed Is Everything.

How Much Does It Cost to Get Into Bocconi Between Test, Application and Preparation?

The Bocconi Test costs €60 per attempt, up to four attempts per cycle, and each application you submit costs €100: sitting the test doesn't enrol you in the selection process, the application is a separate step. Preparation ranges from €1,650 for the small-group Masterclass, 50 hours, to one-to-one courses at €55 an hour.

Adding it all up over the full cycle, the Bocconi side stays contained: at most €240 in test fees if you use all four attempts, plus €100 for every programme you apply to. The big item is preparation, and here the choice is between group and one-to-one. The 50-hour Bocconi Test Masterclass in a group of 3-5 students runs in person in Milan or online, across 33 sessions over 11 weeks, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; it costs €33 an hour against €55 an hour for the equivalent one-to-one course, for a total of €1,650, payable in 12-hour packages from the very first one. The one-to-one course with a dedicated tutor remains the right choice if you don't want the pace of a group, if you're starting well behind on one section, or if you're aiming for the Early Session and need to compress the schedule. University tuition fees aren't covered in this guide: you'll find them on the Bocconi website.

The 92% is an internal Up to Ten figure, not a Bocconi statistic, and it should be read as such: it covers students who prepared for the test with us and were admitted to the programme they had chosen. It says nothing about any individual case, but it says something about the method: timed mock tests from week one, and work built on what each mock test shows, not on a one-size-fits-all programme.

What to Do in September 2026 to Get Into Bocconi for 2027/28?

Three moves, in this order: choose your programme, and with it your language; check the 2027/28 dates on the official admissions page and set your target session; then take a full timed mock test to find out where you're starting from. Anyone who's just finished fourth year should aim for the Early Session; anyone in fifth year should prepare for Winter.

If you've just finished fourth year. The Early Session is now, and your third and fourth year grades are already the ones that count. The mock test doesn't need to go well: it needs to happen, because with four attempts in the cycle, using the first as a diagnostic doesn't cost you your application. If the Early Session isn't enough, Winter is still open with the same school record.

If you're in fifth year. Winter is your main session, which is why the Masterclass has two start dates, in October and November. If you're aiming for the Winter Session, the Bocconi Test Masterclass starts on 5 October or 2 November: the first is for anyone who wants extra margin, the second for anyone who needs to sort out a piece of the syllabus first, such as probability or analytic geometry, with a few targeted maths lessons.

If you're on an international curriculum or already preparing for the SAT. Book your SAT date before the session you've chosen, and know that from 2026 you can also submit the Bocconi Test: the internal conversion picks the better score, so submitting both doesn't count against you. If Bocconi is your first choice but you want a credible alternative in Milan, the comparison with Cattolica is in TIEC vs Bocconi Test.

We work out the rest together, starting from the mock test. Tell us about your situation: programme, session, your last maths test result. From there we write the plan, and you book your first lesson already knowing what to work on.

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