@tsbna44 is correct, my parents (dad especially) even look down on schools with a caliber like BU, Tufts, WashU, etc. I think they retroactively understood the importance of having safeties when I went into March without a single acceptance but of course it’s too late for a safety they like – in my case, UC Riverside, since I brought up that decisions were out last week and they said I should have applied for a safety net. Which is exactly what I said in late November.