The way in which students are selected to access educational centers has a major impact on the outcome of education as a system. In Chile, during the second government of President Bachelet, a centralized system of non-discriminatory selection was implemented by law: the School Admission System (SAE), mandatory for all schools that receive public funds. The implementation of the SAE was gradual and has proved to be efficient, as it has been both operational and accepted by the families that took part in it. This study presents the way the SAE operates and its preliminary results to the fourth year of implementation.