We shall discuss the behavior of type II superconductors in the framework of Ginzburg-Landau theory for an applied magnetic field varying between the second and third critical fields. In this regime superconductivity is restricted to a thin layer along the boundary of the sample and we will prove that the Ginzburg-Landau energy is determined to leading order by the minimization of a simplified 1D functional in the direction perpendicular to the boundary. In the special case of disc samples, we will derive pointwise estimates on the Ginzburg-Landau order parameter, thereby proving a conjecture due to Xing-Bin Pan.