I agree with “Applying right now, the chances for the reaches are tough. An additional year of “maturity” won’t help with highly competitive and most competitive colleges, with nothing else to show but skating.”
and disagree with “Taking a gap year and applying later is usually a positive in the admissions process. Admissions offices really like it when you’re applying a year out of high school because, in most cases, you’re going to be more mature.”
Apply now and see where everything falls out. I don’t know what you’d do to show you’re academically more prepared after a year – your GPA and scores will still be relatively the same. No college is going to look at your gap year academics and admit you who wouldn’t admit you now as a graduating senior. I don’t see much of any boost you could obtain waiting a gap year.