What Happens After the Entrance Exam
Sofia examines on 17 September and wants you enrolled by 9 October. Only 34 programs publish a results date, and the gap is tighter than anyone plans for.
Quick Answer
Days, not weeks — and then almost immediately a decision and a payment. Of the 271 programs on this site, only 34 publish a results or ranking date and 46 publish an enrollment window, so most leave this stretch undescribed. Where it is published the pace is startling. The Medical University of Sofia examines on 17 and 18 September 2026, publishes results on 22 September, ranks on 23 September and enrols between 24 September and 9 October — five days from sitting the paper to being ranked, and the academic year starts within the enrollment window. Jagiellonian examines on 23 May and ranks on 1 June. Universidade Católica Portuguesa compresses an entire admissions cycle into seventeen days: portfolio by 14 June, internal exams 16 to 18 June, an MMI on 19 June, documents 22 to 24 June, results 30 June and registration from 30 June to 6 July. The practical consequence is that your money, your documents and your visa paperwork need to be ready before you sit, not after you pass.
Source Status
Results, ranking and enrollment dates are quoted from the 2026-2027 application timelines recorded per program in our catalog. 34 of 271 records publish a results or ranking date and 46 publish an enrollment or confirmation window; the rest describe the process without dates.
Quick Take
- Only 34 programs publish a results date; 46 publish an enrollment window.
- Sofia: examined 17 September, ranked 23 September, enrolled by 9 October.
- Have the money and the documents ready before you sit, not after.
The published chains
Four universities publish the whole sequence, and they are worth reading as a set because the shape repeats even where the dates are not stated.
| University | The published chain |
|---|---|
| Medical University of Sofia | Exams 17–18 Sep → results 22 Sep → ranking 23 Sep → enrollment 24 Sep–9 Oct 2026 |
| Universidade Católica Portuguesa | Portfolio 14 Jun → exams 16–18 Jun → MMI 19 Jun → documents 22–24 Jun → results 30 Jun → registration 30 Jun–6 Jul |
| Grigore T. Popa | Document check 27 May → verification 28 May → scoring 29 May → final list 22 Jun → confirmation and payment 23 Jun–7 Jul |
| Humanitas University | HUMAT rounds 5–6 and 18–20 Mar → recovery test 24 Mar → ranking 30 Mar 2026 |
Sofia is the tightest and the most instructive. Five days from the last exam to a published ranking, then a fifteen-day enrollment window that ends on 9 October — by which point teaching has begun. Nobody in that chain is waiting for you to arrange a bank transfer.
Católica is the most compressed overall: seventeen days from portfolio deadline to registration closing, with an MMI in the middle of it.
Grigore T. Popa shows the other pattern — a fast scoring phase in late May, then a month of silence before the final list on 22 June, then a two-week confirmation and payment window. The silence is not a problem; the two weeks are.
What the enrolment window actually demands
A ranking is not a place. What converts one into the other is usually a payment and a document set, inside a window measured in days.
Across the catalog those payments are substantial and they are not refundable by default: George Emil Palade asks dentistry applicants for a €5,000 admission deposit, the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences asks non-EU dental applicants for half the annual tuition, Rīga Stradiņš charges a one-time €1,800 registration administration fee and Semmelweis takes a US$2,000 deposit plus a US$230 enrollment fee. The full picture is in what happens after you get in.
The documents are the harder half. Diploma recognition is referenced at 103 of the 212 programs that publish exact requirements, legalization or apostille at 58, certified translation at 23 — and those run in sequence, not in parallel, typically over four to eight weeks. Starting them when the ranking appears is starting them too late. See the document set.
So the honest instruction is to front-load. Have the apostilles moving, the translations ordered and the deposit money liquid before you sit the exam. If you fail, you have lost some fees. If you pass and are not ready, you can lose the place.
Why most programs publish nothing here
Only 34 of 271 publish a results date. That is not evasiveness so much as a structural difference in how the decision is made.
Where selection is a single national or university exam with a ranking, the university can publish the whole chain because it controls it — which is why Bulgaria, Poland and Romania dominate the list of 34 (Romania alone accounts for 11).
Where selection is rolling or file-based, there is no single results day to publish; decisions arrive as files are read. That is most of Cyprus, and the pattern behind the rolling admissions described in what is already closed.
And in the UK, results day is a national fixture set by the exam boards rather than the university, so it does not appear in a course page at all. The mechanics there — firm, insurance, and the reply date that declines your offers for you — are in how UK offers work.
The visa clock starts here, and it is the long one
The step that most often breaks a September start is not the exam or the money. It is the national study visa, which cannot begin until you hold the acceptance the enrollment window produces.
Consulate appointment waits sit on top of processing time, and most study visas require proof of funds held in advance — money you plan to earn does not count. See student visas for European medical school.
Put the two calendars side by side and the risk is obvious. A Sofia applicant is ranked on 23 September and enrols by 9 October, with teaching already under way; a visa applied for in October is not a visa in hand in October.
This is the strongest argument for sitting an early sitting where one exists. A Plovdiv candidate who takes the 15 April exam rather than the 18 August one buys four months of visa and document runway for the same fee — the sittings are in when you would actually sit the exam.
And if the timing genuinely cannot work, a second intake is occasionally an option: can you start medical school in February.
FAQs
How long after a medical entrance exam do results come out?
Where universities publish it, days. The Medical University of Sofia examines on 17 and 18 September and publishes results on 22 September, ranking the next day. Jagiellonian examines on 23 May and ranks on 1 June. Only 34 of the 271 programs on this site publish a results or ranking date at all.
How long do I have to enrol after being accepted?
Often two weeks or less. Sofia's enrollment window runs 24 September to 9 October, Universidade Católica Portuguesa's registration 30 June to 6 July, and Grigore T. Popa's confirmation and payment 23 June to 7 July. Forty-six programs publish a window of this kind.
What do I need ready before the enrolment window opens?
The deposit money and the document chain. Deposits run from a €1,000 reservation at Zagreb to a €5,000 admission deposit at George Emil Palade, and one university asks for half the annual tuition. Apostilles and certified translations run in sequence over four to eight weeks, so starting them when your ranking appears is too late.
Why do so few universities publish a results date?
Because it depends on how they select. Universities running a single exam with a ranking can publish the whole chain, which is why Romania, Poland and Bulgaria dominate the 34 that do. Rolling and file-based admissions have no single results day, and in the UK results day is set nationally by the exam boards rather than the university.
Will I have time to get a student visa?
It is the tightest part of the sequence, because the visa cannot start until you have the acceptance. Consulate waits sit on top of processing time and most study visas require proof of funds held in advance. Where a university offers several exam sittings, taking an early one buys months of visa runway for the same fee.
Is the deposit refundable if my visa is refused?
Usually not by default, and almost none of the pages say either way — which is exactly why it is worth asking admissions in writing, before you pay, whether the deposit is deducted from tuition or additional to it, and what happens if the visa is refused.