I think that, unfortunately, at the more elite universities, that’s how it works. I could be wrong though, as I’m certainly not an admissions officer. My thinking is that they’d probably still skim the essay to see if there’s anything breathtaking in there, but with less than a 3.5 GPA and a 30 ACT/2000 SAT, the applicant can’t really write anything to make up for the lackluster academic performance.