“6 reach 3 match 2 safety is what he is doing” I’d say that’s what we did for our kids (though no one here would call our safeties “safeties.”) It worked out well; kid 1 got into almost all her schools, kid 2 got into two low reaches, so all was well. I agree that your kid has a solid case to make for himself. Just make sure that the “safeties” are really attractive to him.