<p>“Easy safety” is very misleading. “Easy safety for highly-qualified applicants” is probably more apt. As he says, it’s a very self-selecting school; the people who seek out and apply to Chicago are usually qualified enough (and small in number) that the admit rate is high. </p>
<p>If it had the prestige of an Ivy and the matching number of applicants, it would hardly be a safety at all, and would have a admit rate similar to Columbia’s.</p>