<p>So for a student with a 4.0 gpa, a 2200+ SAT score, and strong ECs, is it reasonable to call schools with 30-40 percent acceptance rates "safety schools?" What sort of students get accepted to UMich or Wisconsin Madison? </p>
<p>A safety school is a school where:</p>
<ul>
<li>You will be admitted for sure.</li>
<li>You will surely be able to afford to attend.</li>
<li>You will find that the school offers suitable academics for your interests.</li>
<li>You will otherwise like attending the school.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you are in Texas, a high class rank (possibly combined with test scores) will make many Texas public universities safeties for admission. Of course, you still need to consider affordability and suitability.</p>
<p>If need-based aid, as shown by each school’s net price calculator, is insufficient, you need to check merit scholarships. <a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a> includes some which offer large merit scholarships just for high enough stats, without the uncertainty of essays, interviews, etc… <a href=“http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/”>http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/</a> has more if you have National Merit status.</p>
<p>A safety school is one where you are 99.9-100% certain of being admitted. Due to holistic admissions, no top 75 school is really a safety. Michigan is not a safety school for you. </p>
<p>Then there is the whole issue of a financial safety. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>University of Texas is generally considered to be within the top 75, and it can be an admission safety for someone with a top 7% class rank in a Texas high school.</p>
<p>^^OK, there may be a few exceptions. </p>
<p>A true safety is a place where you are flat-out guaranteed admission based on your grades and/or test scores and/or some other factor, and you know that for dead certain because the information is right on the website.</p>
<p>A reasonably safe institution is one that has never denied admission to a student from your high school who had a profile like yours (GPA, test scores, ECs, course load, etc.)</p>
<p>Perfect grades and near perfect scores can make some places “safer” than others, but every year there are surprises.</p>
<p>Things to be careful of when considering schools as “safeties” if they do not specify automatic admission criteria that you qualify for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Some schools have different admission thresholds by division or major. You may know others in your school with lower stats who got admitted to a given school, but if the school admits by major and you choose a popular major but they do not, their results may not be predictive of your results.</li>
<li>Some schools consider “level of applicant’s interest”. They may see that “overqualified” applicants who do not show interest beyond applying are unlikely to matriculate, so they reject them to keep their yield numbers up. See <a href=“Ways to show a high "level of applicant's interest" - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1626043-ways-to-show-a-high-level-of-applicants-interest-p1.html</a> for examples of ways to show interest.</li>
<li>If you are not sure that you can afford to attend, then the school is not a safety. If a merit scholarship is necessary to make the school affordable, then reach/match/safety must be based on the scholarship, not admission.</li>
</ul>