What exactly defines a safety school?

[Data10]

@theloniusmonk

You keep changing the applicant profile on this, anyway, none of those three would look at SJSU as a safety.

The SF residents in the two posts were the same applicant – with the same stats, same major, and same residence. I expanded the example to include applicants from other locations besides just SF and more explicitly stated UC GPA instead of UW GPA in response to your comment. The original post explained how this applicant could consider SJSU as a safety. Quotes are repeated below:

@First Post

Applicant 1 – SF resident with 4.0 GPA (>4.0 is possible with eligible honors) and 1600 SAT – Only applies to CS. The applicant sees that 4.0 GPA + 1600 was above the EI stat index for 2019, so he considers SJSU a safety. The EI stat requirement for freshman CS increased to 4825 for 2020, so he does not meet the new increased EI and is rejected from his safety.

@Second Post

SJSU CS Applicant 2 – SF resident with 4.0 UC GPA* + 1600 SAT – Does not meet EI threshold and is Not Accepted

*Recalculated UC GPA prior to Santa Clara county bonus, UC GPA has maximum of >4.0 with eligible honors classes