The High School (HS) Ranking is an equity policy aimed at increasing the enrolment of students from underprivileged contexts in selective higher education institutions in Chile. However, HS Ranking is considered as an admission criterion for all applicants, regardless of their contextual characteristics. In this study, we delve into how students from different high school settings interpret and deploy actions to increase their HS Ranking score. Through a Structural Equation Model with validated survey data (9 schools, N = 1.831), our results show that the role of the schools’ context in the deployment of academic strategies to increase HS Ranking score is significant, even after controlling for academic individual motivation. In a scenario of a highly segregated secondary system these results are relevant for the discussion of the role of HS Ranking – an equity-oriented admission policy – in maintaining the higher education inequalities.

高中（HS）排名是一项公平政策，旨在增加智利选择性高等教育机构中贫困学生的入学率。但是，HS 排名被视为所有申请人的录取标准，无论其背景特征如何。在这项研究中，我们深入研究了来自不同高中环境的学生如何解释和部署行动以提高他们的 HS 排名分数。通过具有经过验证的调查数据（9 所学校，N = 1.831）的结构方程模型，我们的结果表明，学校环境在部署学术策略以提高 HS 排名分数方面的作用是显着的，即使在控制了学术个人动机之后.