Politecnico di Milano: entry tests, fees and who gets in

Who Polimi actually suits

Politecnico di Milano does three things only: engineering, architecture and design. That focus is why it carries the weight it does in Europe and why its admissions are the tightest of any Italian public university. If your subject is not one of those three, this is not your university.

It suits a strong technical applicant with a solid mathematics record. It suits a borderline applicant poorly, and applying anyway costs a fee and several weeks.

Entry at a glance

What the evaluation actually weighs

For master's admission, Polimi is looking at three things in this order: the subject content of your bachelor's, the institution that awarded it, and your grades within that context. This matters because it explains a result that confuses Bangladeshi applicants every year — two students with the same CGPA from different universities get different answers. The committee is assessing whether your curriculum covered the mathematics, mechanics or programming the master's assumes on day one.

A design or architecture application adds a portfolio, and a portfolio assembled in the last two weeks reads exactly like one. Start it a year out.

Fees, and the mistake that doubles them

Polimi's fee for a non-EU student is income-assessed like any Italian public university, but the default position if you submit nothing is the top band, near EUR 3,900 a year. Many students pay that band for their whole degree without realising an assessment was available. File the ISEE parificato — the mechanics are in the ISEE guide.

Polimi also runs merit scholarships for international students, decided from the admission application itself in the earlier rounds. They are covered in Polimi's scholarships for international students.

How you apply

1. 1Read the current call for your degree level — Polimi publishes exact round dates and they close on time.
2. 2For a bachelor's, book and sit the required test well before the last round.
3. 3For a master's, upload transcripts, detailed syllabi, CV, motivation letter and portfolio where required.
4. 4After an offer, complete Universitaly pre-enrolment and the Declaration of Value or CIMEA route.

Where a Bangladeshi application usually fails

⚠️ Be realistic about this one. Polimi refuses more Bangladeshi applicants than it accepts, and the usual reasons are structural rather than personal:

1. 1Curriculum gap. A bachelor's in a related-but-different field — a BSc in physics applying to mechanical engineering, or an IT degree applying to computer science and engineering — is refused on content.
2. 2Weak mathematics record. The entrance test and the master's evaluation both key off it.
3. 3Late rounds. The last round has fewer places and no scholarship.
4. 4Portfolio-free design applications. These are simply not competitive.

If you are borderline, Politecnico di Torino is the sensible second application rather than a fallback nobody applied to.

Also worth stating plainly: architecture is a regulated profession. An Italian architecture degree does not by itself let you register and practise as an architect in Italy, elsewhere in the EU, or in Bangladesh — registration is a separate national process.

Before you apply

1. 1Compare your transcript subject by subject against the master's prerequisite list.
2. 2Apply in an early round or accept that you are applying without scholarship consideration.
3. 3Read what Milan costs — the low public fee does not make the city cheap.