The PSU (or University Selection Test in its English translated acronym) is a national level test taken by high school seniors in order to study at one of Chile’s top universities. Taken by nearly 300,000 students each year, the PSU is similar to the SAT or ACT in the United States, but the stakes are much higher. The test is used as the main admissions metric for the 30 plus members schools of the National Council of Rectors (CRUCh), which are often referred to as “traditional universities”. Most of the CRUCh universities are public, jesuit or private schools created before Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup and the subsequent reworking and large scale privitizing of Chile’s national education system.
The universities that utilize the multi-topic PSU are often thought of as the “best of the best” and offer a clearer path to higher economic status inside Chile’s stratified economy, compared to newer, less prestigious schools created post 1973. As in most developed countries, the more prestigious the university a person attends the more opportunities for work and social advancement that person is afforded. In the midst of Chile’s on-going social crisis high school students have challenged why the PSU exists and what function it serves in Chilean society.
Bevacqua 