I’m just a student with no insider knowledge about admissions, so take this with a grain of salt, but I really do think that essays are far far more important than emphasized on CC. It’s objective and easy to report test scores/GPA/number of clubs you’re president of, so those portions of the application are the most discussed. Ivies like Harvard can fill their classes multiple times over with academically identical students; they’re therefore more likely to pay attention to subtleties in essays than “lower tiered” schools. I know that I am very defensive about my own writing, so it can be hard for students to admit that their essays are anything less than “strong” (seriously, everyone on the results threads of any Ivy school says their essays were strong), but even strong essays may not be enough if the CA essay and the supplemental essay are too similar, or if the characteristics highlighted in the essays aren’t what the school is looking for. Again, just my two cents. Admissions is a mystery to all.