Wow, talk about pessimism... First of all, that bolded statement is simply untrue. I'm pretty familiar with the admissions process and trust me, it's often VERY easy to tell when an applicant (especially an "elite" one) is clearly not wanting to come here as their first choice. I've been on these message boards awhile and in the pre-med circles for even longer and I have never ever heard of UCCOM being a big safety school; that's got to be new. Sure a few applicants may consider it as such, but that doesn't warrant some sort of generalization. I also don't quite understand why they would care if people do call the school that. If the average is a 33, then that means enough people with good stats get accepted AND take the acceptance. The average score of people who matriculate at UCCOM is the only relevant number you should be concerned with. My guess is, a true safety school would have a pretty low average for matriculants (but possibly a higher average applicant score). Who cares anyway! UCCOM is a great school with a rich history and some awesome (and new) teaching facilities and faculty.
The next thing is a 33 average means they take plenty of 32's. A mediocre GPA, if truly "mediocre" is going to hurt you at almost any school. However, UCCOM looks at the entire application, and they don't just pay that lip service. Several of my classmates and people in classes after mine have gotten in with surprisingly "low" numbers (MCAT and/or GPA). A 34 and 3.8 with little to no experience/extracurriculars will not have as good of a chance than a 31, 3.5, with a lot of meaningful experiences. Strength of schedule, trends in GPA, clinical experience, volunteering, research, leadership positions...IF MEANINGFUL, will carry a lot of weight at UCCOM.
The MSAR is a great resource, but I also remember being initially scared off from schools with high applicant MCAT averages. However these same schools interviewed me when I ended up applying anyway. A mean value can be an unreliable measure.. Good luck to all of you...it's a great school, just apply and don't think about it too much. Hell, it's the cheapest secondary application fee that I've seen...that's as good a reason as any.😀