Another one who doesn’t think the safety school has to have a guarantee of admission. In my experience a STEM kid needs to be willing to look at the smaller tech schools for example. A humanities oriented kid might look at the second tier of LACs - especially if they are a guy. The best safety of all is the one that lets you know early. (It might even be one of your reachiest schools, as happened to my younger son.) Honors programs are also the other obvious way to get a better experience at a school where you are likely to be a top student.