<p>A safety meets these criteria:</p>
<p>1) You are flat-out guaranteed admission based on your grades/scores/special talent or ability. You know this because you meet or exceed the standards for guaranteed admission that are posted right on the institution’s website.</p>
<p>2) You can pay the Cost of Attendance with no aid other than guaranteed federal aid (FAFSA) and/or guaranteed state aid and/or guaranteed merit-based aid offered by the institution itself.</p>
<p>3) You are happy to attend if you aren’t admitted anywhere else that is affordable.</p>
<p>4) Your potential major(s) is(are) offered.</p>
<p>Your current list has two lotteries, one reach, and one presumed safety. If U of AR doesn’t post the grades and stats that guarantee admission, you can’t count on it as a real safety. You have to put it into the pretty-d*mn-safe category.</p>
<p>There are scads of matches and reaches out there for you. Run the search engines and take your pick. As for safeties, take a long hard look at the threads on automatic and competitive merit-based aid that are at the top of the financial aid forum. Your stats qualify you for serious money at some places that are not merely tolerable.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>