Family Income & Scholarships

Most importantly, most of the Italian public universities applies a special tuition fee calculation policies based on the family income (*either within Italy or worldwide) of each student. In quite many cases, non-EU students are considered to be “lowest income group,” simply because their “Italian domestic income” does not exist and their “overseas income” cannot be properly traced unless the student voluntarily submit “consulate-certified” income tax report from their home countries.

Recently, a few public universities have amended this “gray area” issue. But, it is still about 6-10% of what US medical students are paying for. Naturally, when it comes to “the gross expense (*tuition fee + insurance fee + living cost + travel cost),” the student will end up with paying only about 5-8% of what the US medical students pay to complete their medical studies. 

When it comes to Scholarships at Italian universities, both “merit-based” and “income-based” opportunities are offered, with some variations between the regions. Conventionally, the northern regions have stronger economy than the southern ones. In short, this has resulted in different scholarship environments as following:

• North: more of “merit-based” and/or “private/institutional” scholarship opportunities; less “income-based” opportunities and fewer dormitory options
• South: more of “income-based” and more dormitory options

Living Costs

Roughly to say, the northern universities (*i.e. Milan, Padova, Pavia, Bologna, Torino) have about 20-40% more expensive living costs, compared with the southern ones (*i.e. Naples, Bari, Messina, Siena), while Rome has closer stance to the northern budget as it is the “Capital of Italy.” Still, unless someone seeks to very lucrative life during the six-year programs, the foreign students usually do NOT spend more than $1,000 USD per month including their accommodation and foods if they are strict on their local student budget. This includes a “shared-apartment” and “pizza and pasta” everyday at local university cafeterias (*sometimes, local wines are found as well.) Also, the university students usually pay between $100 and $400 USD for “annual public transport pass” as well as $8-$20 for 10-40 GB cellular internet per month (*4G or higher).