For what it’s worth, my kid had several semesters of B+s in his math class with 3.9 unweighted average (he was in top 5% out of 500+ kids though), and he got in REA. Basically, gpa wise, I think my kid was in top 25 of his class, but he made NMF list made up of around 15 kids. Even many of his As were A-. I was worried that having noticeable number of A-s and 2 B+s would exclude him from getting admitted to top college but I turned out to be wrong. And my kid did not have any hook, and I don’t believe his essay was out of this world (if anything, anti-hook and from a high middle class suburb area), although the person who did review his essays told me that my kid’s essays really captured who he was.
I believe it’s very important that essays be corroborated by his activities and recommendation letters – that’s one thing this person said that stuck in my memory.