<p>I agree, I did not apply to any true safeties, knowing a gap year would be fine. In the end I got into my top choices and chose a gap year too. Here's the thing, my stats were in range for all of my schools. By in range I think you need to back out the hooked: athletes, URMs, prodigies, legacies and development candidates who comprise about 50% of the class at the top schools. If you're not in one of those groups, you will need to have above average stats. So if the average SAT is 1460, if you're white or Asian and not in one of those groups expect your SAT needs to be higher. If 90% are in the top 10% of their graduating class and you're not, and you don't go to a top 25 high school, expect you need to be well under top 10%. The unfortunate truth is that top colleges keep coming up with the same or better stats year after year. Better at all the top schools. This will be the hardest year in history to get into a top college. So my thinking is that if you can love Amherst you can love Grinnell and a whole lot of other small LACs.</p>