How much do Berkeley essays matter in the admission process?

[ababon]

This kid wasn’t accepted. Look at his stats.

Rejected.

2350+ SAT
800 Math II, 800 US History
4.0 UW
President and/or founder of two school organizations
2x Self-taught semifinalist in a prestigious national competition
National Merit Scholarship winner (as of today, actually…)
A bunch of other stuff…

Honestly, I will never understand this decision, but it’s alright. I’ve gotten accepted to 2 schools I would go to over Berkeley anyway (and am waiting on Stanford/Ivies), but this still hurts. My essays were weak matches for the prompts because I only decided to apply last minute, so I guess that must have been the problem.