I think your info is a bit dated. BU had a tiny acceptance rate this year. Like many schools (Northeastern) and others, things have changed. A lot. So the school someone applied to even 5 years ago might be easier than a school that has focused on climbing the ranks. Kids should focus, IMO, on the programs and what they like about each program and school. Visit the schools and see what is important and what you like/dislike. Forget about someone else’s perception regarding #, vs # etc. For the most part, schools fall into tiers. These days, NEU and BU aren’t really anyone’s safety. Like Tufts, they want to accept kids who will likely enroll.
My very high stats high EC legacy kid got a reject from BU. The school was put on the “Safeties list” by the school’s CG. It wasn’t top of my kids list. But my kid did get into GT, also not top of the list. Kid isn’t attending either school. Schools are reading applications carefully and know who is likely to attend so EA/ED etc go a long way.
But similar results happened with peers in the class of '22. I would not say that GT is that much “harder” to get into than BU except for SFS. There were top kids who got into and rejected from both. YMMV.