What about Sure Thing, My Tribe, and Bingo! instead of the rather negative sounding “Safety”, boring “Match” and angsty “Reach”.
Anyone else have more positive terms for the different difficulties of schools the kids are applying to? 
Slam Dunk, Nice Fit, No Chance in Hell ??
George Clooney, Hugh Grant, Wallace Shawn (change them up depending on your gender preferences and age!)
My kids’ school used Likely, Possible, Reach, and Far Reach, which I think fairly described the categories as even “safeties” are no a guarantee and it takes away the whole dismissive tone of the word.
No brainier, my peeps, no way Jose
I’ve heard target instead of match
I’m with @doschicos We use “likelies” instead of “safeties.” Safety sounds too much like “well, I’ll settle if I must.” D17’s school uses similar categories.
I try to talk to my DS about the probability he can get into a certain school…as in “you have a high probability of getting into school ABC with your current ACT score but a low probability of getting into PDQ.” I’m trying, probably futilely, to avoid him thinking that school ABC is a “safety” that he might have to “settle” for.
Impossible. Possible, Will Take Anyone?
Locks, Targets, Hail Marys
I love all of these Nice to re-frame stressful stuff with humor.
no diggity, diggitydank, bomb diggity
How about “Community College and transfer to state flagship after two years” for “Financial Safety.”
My suggestion: Would really love to have more students like you; Would be happy to have you; Has nothing against you, but could replace you in 3 seconds. That’s how I explain it to my son.
My son’s school doesn’t use the term safety because it is considered a bit insulting and no kid wants to be “stuck with only his safety.” (also, they prefer not to have kids referring to a school as a safety that is a classmate’s dream school); they use “likely”. They also avoid “match” simply because kids assume that they’ll get in if they’re a “match.”
Today’s email from my son’s counselor in response to my request that he talk to my son about researching schools outside the top 30 (I called it Plan B) – “I’m happy to help you broaden your son’s consideration set.” They talk to them about applying “to a range of schools” and pretty much prohibit them from applying to “only one type of school.” This has resulted in a number of kids going to interesting little liberal arts schools who had previously assumed that they would be going to mom/dad’s neighboring state flagship (to which they also were admitted).
“Would take anyone” is not going to sound positive to a teenager
I like “Likely”. We need different sets of words to describe admissions chances and affordability. For admissions, I like @doschicos list. For affordability maybe something like: safety, match, stretch, and rich aunt dies. A kid could reasonably apply to several schools that were financial “stretches” in the hope that merit aid could turn some of them into solid matches.
Larry, Moe, & Curly
Yep! Maybe… and NFW
To use basketball vernacular layup, three pointer and full court chuck.
I like Likely, Target and Reach with a side of Hail Mary.
bronze, silver, gold… and platinum