<p>All these posts have made me wonder if there is some straight-forward formula that might define Safety in terms of admissions —</p>
<p>How about this:</p>
<p>-Selectivity 10% or less (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, maybe Penn-Wharton: By definition not a safety for anyone other than 2400 with perfect academic record and non-objectionable personal traits</p>
<p>-Selectvity 11%-20%: Safety if both GPA and SAT are above 90% of enrolled students</p>
<p>-Selectivity 21%-30%: Safety if both GPA and SAT are above 85% of enrolled students</p>
<p>-Selectivity 31%-40%: Safety if both GPA and SAT are above 80% of enrolled students</p>
<p>-Selectivity 41%-50%: Safety if both GPA and SAT are above 75% of enrolled students</p>
<p>anyway, something like that. Of course people mean different things by the word Safety. That’s why we have the fields of Statistics and Probability, with confidence intervals and all that.</p>