Hi, I was wondering what matters most-least on the college application, so can you list from 1 (most)- 9 (least) these things? Thank you!! 
Essay (or other writing sample)
Transcript (school grades and GPA)
Test Scores (ACT/SAT)
School profile (number of students, environment, etc.)
Recommendations
Extracurricular activities/work experience
Awards/Honors
Optional sample of creative work
Feel free to add anything to this list if needed!
I’m my opinion it’s transcript, test scores and essay in that order. If you make the cut after these three ECs and awards. Importance will be very different for an Ivy or top LAC as compared to flagship public university
It varies by school - there is no one answer. A good way to find out what a college cares about is to check out their CDS - there is a table that shows the weights they assign to each category.
In general, I think that the big two are standardized test scores and academic record (GPA, course rigor, class rank), and those are weighted roughly equally by most schools. Everything else (all the other stuff you listed) make up the third category - in general as you move up into the most selective schools, this part becomes more important (holistic admissions is a good keyword to look for), while at less selective schools, more emphasis is placed on test scores and grades.
Most to least
Transcript
Test Scores
Extracurricular activities/work experience
Essay
Recommendations
Awards/Honors
School profile
@NickFlynn Thank you! What is CDS?
Common Data Set.You can Google the Common Data Set and the name of the school if you want to see it.
It’s important to look at each school. For example, the importance of test scores varies depending on whether it’s a school that requires standardized test scores, is test optional or doesn’t require test scores at all. While the tippy-top schools all require standardized test scores, there are a number of very good schools that don’t. See fairtest.org for a list.
It definitely pays to check the common data set as all this information is clearly spelled out for each school.
The common data set section C7 information about the importance of various criteria for frosh admission can also be found under the admission tab for the colleges entry at http://www.collegedata.com .
I would go with:
Test Scores
Essay
Transcript
Recommendation/Extracurriculars/Work
Awards
School profile
Optional Sample
The higher the school, IMO, the more important the essay is. As you go lower in tier, a 2200+ SAT may become rarer, but when you go up to the ivies, MIT etc, a 2200+ isn’t uncommon. So the essays are what will separate you from the rest. Transcript is also important because obviously you can’t be failing, but schools grade differently. Recommendations=extracurriculars and work because a recc is basically an acknowledge/supplement that you do extra work and are more than just a test score.
Transcript
ECs/Awards
Recommendations/Essays
Test Scores (if within range)
Test Scores are at the bottom of the list because I believe that as long as your test scores are not “too low” for the school you are applying to, they are not really looked at after initial screening. It sounds really dumb for a college to prefer one candidate over another for 30 pts on the SAT (1 question) which tells you nothing about the student compared to what ECs/Awards/Recs/Essays tell you.
Most to least:
Transcript
Test Scores
Recommendations
Essay
EC’s/work experience
Awards/honors
School profile
Optional sample of creative work
Each school has a set of information called the “Common Data Set”. Google the school you are interested and Common Data set to find it for the school you are in. There is a table of data of what is considered Most Important, Important, Considered and not-considered. GPA and Test scores are always Most Important. After that it varies.
Not always true, although it is generally true that some type of academic measure(s) are “very/most important”.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=788