Bocconi Graduate Merit Award 2027 — Full Tuition Waiver in Milan
Tuition only Master scholarship in Italy for International students 2027
Bocconi keeps its second international round open until 26 January 2027, and every applicant is screened for merit awards that waive tuition in full.
Eligibility
- Apply to a two-year MSc or MA programme in the 2027/28 intake
- Hold, or be completing, an undergraduate degree from outside Italy
- Submit the admission file in round two, which closes 26 January 2027 at 15:00 Italian time
- Have a GMAT, GRE or Bocconi Test score if your programme requires one
- Accept that the award is decided from the admission file, with no separate scholarship form
Bocconi runs its international recruitment as a sequence of dated rounds rather than a single deadline, and that structure quietly decides who gets funded. The university's own admissions page notes that places in the most sought-after programmes, and the majority of scholarships, are more likely to be allocated in the earlier rounds. Round two is open now and closes on 26 January 2027, which makes the next eleven weeks the most valuable window of the cycle for an applicant who needs a tuition waiver.
What it covers
Bocconi's merit awards waive tuition in full for the standard duration of the degree — two years for a Master of Science — and are decided from the admission file itself, with no separate scholarship application. That is the attraction and the trap: nothing extra needs to be submitted, so nothing extra can rescue a weak file. The award does not cover living costs, and Milan is not cheap; budget for rent, food, transport and the residence permit separately. Students who are not awarded a merit waiver can apply after enrolment to the Bocconi4Access to Education scheme, which grants need-based waivers at varying percentages depending on family circumstances.
Who can apply
The award is for first-year entry to Bocconi's two-year MSc and MA programmes, taught in English, in fields from economics and finance to data science, politics and artificial intelligence. Applicants must hold, or be completing, an undergraduate degree from outside Italy; Italian candidates have a separate funding route. You may list up to five programmes in one application, which is worth doing carefully — the same file is read against several class groups, and the choice of programmes changes your odds more than most applicants realise.
Eligibility self-check
Ask yourself: is my undergraduate degree from outside Italy, or will it be complete before enrolment? Does my shortlist of programmes match what my transcript actually shows — quantitative methods for finance, writing and analysis for policy? Do I have the test score my chosen programmes require, or a date booked before January? And can I live in Milan on my own funds if the waiver is the only award I receive? A yes to the last question is what separates a workable plan from a hopeful one.
Deadline
Round two runs from 30 October 2026 to 26 January 2027 and closes at 15:00 Italian time; results are released on 4 March 2027. Round three follows from 27 January to 11 March, and round four from 12 March to 29 April. You cannot run two applications at once, and a candidate may apply at most twice in the same academic year, with at least one element of the profile improved on the second attempt. Applicants who already hold an offer cannot reapply.
How to apply
Create an account in the Bocconi application portal, select up to five MSc or MA programmes, and upload transcripts, degree certificate, CV, motivation materials and your test score. Pay the application fee and submit before 15:00 on 26 January. Because award decisions travel with admission results, there is nothing further to file in March — but you must accept both the place and the award inside the enrolment window stated in your offer, or the waiver is lost.
Application materials checklist
Have ready: complete transcripts with a grade conversion if your university does not use ECTS, the degree certificate or an expected-graduation letter, a CV of one to two pages, the programme-specific motivation statement, English proficiency evidence, and a GMAT, GRE or Bocconi Test result where required. Non-English documents need translation. Keep a spreadsheet of which programme asks for which test, because the five choices do not always share one rule.
Common mistakes to avoid
The most common is waiting for round four "to improve the score" — by then most of the funding has been allocated, and the same file would have been worth more in January. The second is listing five programmes with no coherent thread, which reads as indecision. The third is submitting an unconverted transcript that the committee cannot read against Italian grading. The fourth is assuming the merit award includes housing; it does not, and a handful of top candidates receive accommodation separately rather than as part of the package.
Tips to win
Apply in round two with the best test score you can produce by mid-January, and put the programme you most want first. Show quantitative preparation explicitly if you are coming from a humanities background, and show writing and policy interest if you are coming from engineering. Then treat the need-based route as a parallel plan rather than a fallback: Bocconi4Access is assessed on family finances and can be requested after enrolment, but it will not rescue a January deadline you missed.
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Not sure whether your documents meet the bar? An OEAC advisor will read your file before you submit and tell you what to fix — book a free review through the OEAC advisory team.
Last updated: 6 November 2026. Source: Bocconi MSc and MA admissions and funding pages. Photo: Bocconi Grafton Building, Milan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Always confirm the deadline and eligibility on the official page before you apply. Scholarship dates change between rounds, and this listing is a summary — the provider's own page is the authoritative source. OEAC Network lists scholarships for free and is not an agent for any university or funding body.
