My D is hoping to major in VP and is in the process of completing her applications. There is the common app essay of course but also several shorter writing supplements for the various schools. She has excellent grades and a strong ACT score but honestly is not the best writer. How much do the essays matter compared with the audition, GPA, ACT, etc? Thank you so much for shedding any light on this. Music admission seems like a whole different animal.
I would say that essays are not much of a deal breaker in this context 
I sometimes help kids with essays and the main thing is they tend to overwrite. Just tell her to be herself and write as if the person reading it is in the room with her.
Oh those little essay questions…I remember them well…they ate up an incredible amt of time and I still wonder if anyone read them! I believe they matter very little, but that is my opinion. Still I would have your D write them and you edit them (meaning make sure there are no glaring punctuation or spelling errors). I would not worry about them to much.
*too much - maybe I didn’t edit them very “good”!