Reach: Carleton College. Didn’t get in.
Safety: UNC-Asheville.
Ended up going to Guilford College, where I was very happy.
In NY 45 years ago you were only allowed to apply to 3 colleges and CUNY. This was because of the immense size of our class. CUNY and RPI were my safety schools, and MIT was my kind of reach school, since I figured no one actually got in. I did though.
I only applied one place, got in, got full ride. Go me.
My reach schools were Cal Tech and Stanford. My safety schools were Brown and Georgia Tech. I ended up going to Colorado school of mines side they would let me do football and track when the DI schools wanted me to pick one and I was soundly rejected by my academic choices due to not graduating in the top half of my class.
Had the choice of any state school I wanted to go to. Family finances precluded any private college. Graduate school was a different story. Applied to an was accepted to any I wanted to go to. Chose the one that gave me the largest scholarship. Second grad school was Harvard, my dream school. I started but didn’t quite finish my PhD.
I only applied to NCSU. It was where I wanted to go, I knew I would be accepted and there was no sense in sending application fees to schools I wasn’t interested in attending.
Applying this fall/winter:
Reach-UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego
Match-Brandeis, UCSB, UC Irvine, UC Davis, USC
Safety-UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, CSU Long Beach, Ohio State
I’d actually like to go to Ohio State if I didn’t get into UCLA or UC Berkeley but OOS tuitions are a big problem… Hoping to get in to at least UCSB
UC prices aren’t that bad (especially if you did two years of CC) after aid and grants.
When did these terms come in to vogue, because I don’t remember them being used back in my day, which was the mid-70’s. My sister went to Kent State, and I liked it there, and I knew I could get in, and we could afford it (back in those days few of us had student debt after 4 years…I paid tuition and books, my parents paid room and board, I didn’t owe a penny after college and only one quarter did my books cost more than $75). So Kent State was the only college I applied to. My parents didn’t see the point of wasting money applying to colleges I couldn’t afford.
Reach: Cornell, UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill
Safety: Virginia Tech, Illinois
Attended: William and Mary
Those terms were definitely in use by 1984, when I graduated from high school. I’ve been going through the archives of The New York Times, and the first mentions I found of that term were from articles in 1980-81.
(BTW, I attended an ECAC championship at the old Boston Garden. The fans of one of the schools taunted another group by chanting “safety school” at them.)
I was under the impression that USC was a good school - on par with UCLA. I guess with the elevated tuition compared to the UC schools, it’s less competitive than Berkely or UCLA?
Also, why OSU as opposed to say… Michigan?
Reach – Harvard. Hey, if you’re going to reach, reach high. Besides they charged less to apply (Only $10; most schools asked for twice that) and sent me a very nice rejection letter along the lines of, “We may be making a mistake in turning you down.”
Safety – Dickinson College in Carlise, PA. I ended up going to Union.
Can’t really answer for him, but Michigan is stunningly expensive for out of state students. That’s why I didn’t apply there, back in the day, and it continues to cost on-par with elite private universities. Michigan charges 20,000+housing/food+fees+books per semester; OSU is 25,000 for the year (and that includes fees).
Got in everywhere I applied. Maybe it was ~4 small colleges, Rice, and the honors program (plan 2 or something like that) at UT Austin, which was my safety. Guess I could have applied to some Ivies, but I wasn’t interested. Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd were probably the two most reachy that I applied to.
This was for MBA. Penn and Columbia were my reaches. University of Virginia was my “safety” but I was rejected by them as well. Next year I got into Tulane and Vandy, but decided to take the full ride at Virginia Tech, rather than borrow $40k, which seemed like a huge amount at the time. Looking back 25 years later, I probably would have better off financially with the bigger “brand” school. But four years after getting my MBA I was faced with having to risk my job to take down a crooked boss, or going along with it. Not having a big debt payment hanging over me made my decision a lot easier.
Still it was a big adjustment going from thinking I could go to an Ivy or eqivalent to settling for Virginia Tech. I had a perfect GMAT, but my undergrad from Pakistan and essays probably weren’t as impressive as I thought they would be.
When I attended U of Mass tuition was $125.00 per semester for as many credits as you wanted to take. 40+ years later, tuition at the college where I taught was over $400 a credit hr. I have no idea how much elite schools are today. Sure they give lots of scholarships but one book can cost more than I paid for an entire semester. Lord, I’m feeling old just thinking about it. 
Reach: St Olaf. Not smart enough.
Applied to U of M. Like a dummy, instead of starting in General School, I auditioned for the School of Music. Rejected. Decided I hated the U, ended up at my safety school, Augsburg, last minute.
I’m glad I went there, though.
I applied early decision to Agnes Scott. So sorry, neither safety nor reach.
ETA - I had several offers to schools I didn’t apply to because of National Merit. I suppose my true safety would have been the local University of South Carolina, or one of those (I know one was Alabama and one was University of Florida.) But I just wanted to go to the school I went to, and there wasn’t another one I really wanted.
ETAA - this was mid-late 90’s.
I think this was dependent on my planned major because while USC, for example, has a great business program its history department (where my planned major lines) is more on par with UCSB or UCI.
Ohio State’s the only one offering remotely affordable rates for out of state according to their financial calculators (16k after grants as opposed to 27k for U Michigan).