Hello,
I’ve seen threads about how this is important since it’s the only work that’s 100% student-only, yet just wanted to ask how much it will hurt/boost your chances.
I mean the writing sample was 20 minutes => mine didn’t go well and I ended up repeating myself. Sentence-level it was fine (except for a typo…).
How much anything counts for anyone is a guess.
There is no specific formula (20% writing sample, 25% SSAT scores, 25% grades, 10% essay, 20% letters of rec). There are no hard and fast rules.
What weighs more for you may, weigh less for a legacy or athlete. What weighs less for you may weigh more for the other kid from your school that is applying. What weighs more for you at school A isn’t even considered at school B.
Your writing is over, what’s done is done. Don’t stress over something you can’t change.
“Don’t stress over something you can’t change”
Those are wise words.
Yet hard to do.
It is but it will bode you well for all the years of life you have left in you. Think of it this way, you can’t change what you wrote and you cannot change how someone thinks about what you wrote. Are you spending energy focusing on this essay which you have no power to change? Yes. Can you use that energy for something else in your life? Always. Why waste the energy focused on something you cannot change the outcome of when you can instead invest that energy into something else?
This is exactly why we did not pay extra to get the writing sample. Out of sight. Out of mind. What is done is done and there is no way to change it. To dwell on it wastes energy.
A little like that lady who declutters (I think it is Marie Kondo or something like that) where she holds an object and asks “does it bring me joy?” If the answer is no, then it’s tossed out. Your essay didn’t bring you joy…toss it out 
As the other poster said, it’s likely different school to school. I was under the impression that it is simply used to make sure the writing is close to the essays and graded paper, kind of as a checkpoint to make sure the student did the other work. But, that could be the case at one school and not another, etc.
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haha we didnt pay to get the writing sample either. You’re right it’s not much point
EMA makes you pay to receive it. You either select it when registering and get a discount or you can purchase it after. Don’t believe me, look at their website for registering for the test. Your parents paid for it.
They did not because I -
NOT IMPORTANT JUST REALIZED I didn’t report scores to Choate 
some kind of tech issue but you’re a lifesaver lol
-because we checked the parent portal together and you could indeed purchase it (but we didnt)