Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - 100 merit scholarships at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

100 merit scholarships at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

You receive 2,500 EUR per year. This rises to 3,500 EUR per year if you move into one of the university's on-campus colleges in Milan, Piacenza or Rome. The money is paid from January of the following year. You can renew it for later years if you keep up a strong grade average: START scholarships run up to 3 years, RUN scholarships up to 2 years (3 years for six-year programmes). The university awards 100 scholarships each year, together with the Istituto Giuseppe Toniolo, and picks winners on merit alone with no income test. Note that this is not a tuition waiver, so your study fees stay separate.

Who can apply

• Where you study: You enrol at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Italy. Applying does not oblige you to enrol if you do not win.
• START track (60 places): You are finishing or have finished secondary school and are starting a bachelor's or single-cycle degree. 6 places are reserved for the "A. Gemelli" Medicine and Surgery faculty and go purely by its admission-test results.
• RUN track (40 places): You are finishing or have finished a three-year bachelor's degree, even at another university, and are starting a master's at the Università Cattolica. You also qualify if you are a Cattolica student entering the 4th year of a single-cycle degree.
• Age: For START, you were born on or after 1 January 2003 and hold no university diploma yet. For RUN, you were born on or after 1 January 2000 and hold no master's diploma yet.
• Field of study: Open to all subjects. General START scholarships exclude Medicine and Surgery, which has its own 6 reserved places.
• Income: No financial-need requirement. The award is based only on merit.
• Nationality: All nationalities can apply.

How to apply

You register online at the scholarship website and upload your documents by the stated deadline. Selection is a written online test with a questionnaire and an essay, marked anonymously, with no interview. Rankings come out in summer and the final list of winners in December.

How realistic are your chances?

With 100 scholarships each year and no income barrier, the pool of applicants is large. An anonymous written exam decides the result, so your chances depend on how you perform on the day rather than on a personal profile. The exam combines a questionnaire and an essay, plus points for your school or academic record. Strong grades and solid test preparation are what decide it. There is no waiting list, so your exam score must land you high in the ranking.