<p>“Safe” needn’t mean “guaranteed”, as long as one is willing to accept a little risk.
Some super-qualified students would take a gap year and apply all over again rather than attend a 100% guaranteed alternative. For them, 90% or even 70% may be safe enough. </p>
<p>A useful statistic for this discussion would be the number of Californians wait-listed by HYPSM who also are rejected by the more selective UCs. </p>