My D1 took kind of the same path. She was not interested in any of the Ivies but she loves one very high reach after visiting there with her school orchestra in junior year. That was the only one top 10 (top few) schools she applied. At the end she was not accepted by it (not surprising at all even with near perfect stat) but a few schools within the top 20-30. Among the accepted schools, she did not pick the most prestigious one either but the instate flagship that offers better scholarship and lower out of pocket cost. She said she does not want to compete with all those top students in the next 4 years. The instate flagship is also within top 30 but obviously much less competitive. Because of that, she has been receiving additional scholarships every year. She is happy in school and we are happy to pay less, and she is going graduate next year debt free. 