Most essays will be average. By average, falls within the range of most of the essays the college gets from their applications. It’s rare an essay falls below or above that average even rarer that the essay is going to catapult a studebt who otherwise would not be accepted into the consideration and/or accept zone. Such cases, almost always are not solely the excellence of the writing, but because they open a window into an experience or skill or something about the student that the college wants.
An medical research project and paper, that a lot of kids are including in their app gets an extra punch written by kid undergoing Neuroblastoma immunotherapy in personal life. An essay sets the stage for bringing these experiences together in a way that the life experience and the research activities individually would not.
So, writing some great essay alone not likely to do it. Most all essays, ive been told by GCs and college admissions folks are average. Many painfully so after the first round of admissions readings. But even the stellar essays, not supported by the rest of the application or some resounding circumstance is not going to change admissions status.
You want to avoid cliches, subjectsthat can irritate random readers if you want to avoid a down tick in the essay score, unless you want to take that chance, IMO.