Hypothetically, if a student applied to a top college and had good grades, a good SAT score, good ECs (nothing that special), but wrote a truly stellar essay, would they get accepted? Of course, this wouldn’t apply to everyone who wrote a good essay, but is it possible?
I mean hypothetically yeah, It would also depend on the specifics of the grade and the SAT scores though. If they arent great but the essay is amazing, adcoms may wonder if the student actually wrote the essay, or if they got too much help.