"COLLEGE ADMISSIONS IS A process often fraught with uncertainty. And while there are no guarantees, there is a common practice of applying to multiple colleges, including those that a student expects to be safe bets. Typically known as safety schools, these are colleges where admission is more likely because of a student’s academic profile.
‘A safety school is one that a student is almost certain to get into,’ Mandee Heller Adler, founder and president of Florida-based International College Counselors, wrote in an email.
Rachel York, a premier college admissions counselor at IvyWise, a New York-based college admissions counseling firm, wrote in an email that a safety 'or ‘likely’ school is one where your numbers fall toward the top or even above the middle 50% of admitted students. Additionally, the selectivity of a school is an important factor. If it has a high acceptance rate (60%) and your numbers are above average, this would be a solid likely school." …