The Growing Season of College Applications
My dad was an avid gardener and a lifelong educator. I may not have inherited his green thumb, but I did learn some important lessons from him on both fronts: growth takes time, care, and an understanding of seasons.
When I think of him, I picture him in the yard at dawn, kneeling in the dirt, gently pressing seedlings into the soil. He never hurried. He’d talk about how some plants needed to establish roots before they could handle more sun, how overwatering could be just as harmful as neglect, and ways to protect tomatoes from “those damn squirrels!” To me, it looked like a slow process. To him, it was intentional: each stage had its own purpose.
That’s exactly how I think about the college application process.
Why Constant Progress Backfires
Parents and guardians often want constant, visible progress—proof that things are moving forward in a competitive landscape that can feel unforgiving. I understand that impulse. But students, like gardens, don’t thrive on nonstop pushing. They grow best when their work is organized into thoughtful phases, each with a clear focus and built-in room to rest.
From the outside, it can feel safer to “do everything as early as possible” or to keep students constantly producing as a way to manage adult anxiety. In practice, that approach is like flooding a garden and demanding it bloom in June just because you’re ready for flowers. Students get tired, resentful, and burned out before the most demanding part of the process even begins.
Spring: Planting and Rooting
In the spring of junior year, I treat our work as the planting season. This is when I sit down with students to work on their personal statements. We dig into their experiences, values, and turning points. We experiment with different angles and drafts.
The goal isn’t to rush and finish everything; it’s to put strong roots into the ground. A well-crafted personal statement written in the spring often becomes the narrative anchor for everything that follows.
Summer: Rest and Quiet Growth
Then comes July, and that’s where my dad’s lessons about rest really come in. I encourage students to step back: focus on summer programs, jobs, family, travel, or simply catching their breath. On the surface, it can look like “nothing is happening.” In reality, that pause is doing quiet work.
Their minds reset. Experiences from the summer settle and start to make meaning. The soil recovers so that, later, more intensive work is sustainable.
Fall: High-Growth Season
By August, when supplemental essays (i.e. the back-breaking work) are released, we enter the high-growth season. Students come back with renewed energy, and we can increase the intensity without overwhelming them. The foundational work is already done, so the supplements build on a story that feels authentic and grounded rather than rushed and scattered.
This is where we can ask more of them—more drafts, more focus—because the earlier phases did their job. It’s also a time when they’re juggling their most rigorous courses, high-impact leadership roles, and for better or worse, becoming independent (translation: they are less receptive to your input.)
A Simple Seasonal Roadmap
For families, it can help to think of the process like this:
Spring of junior year: plant and root (reflection, personal statement, resume, big-picture planning).
July: rest and replenish (summer experiences, mental space, low-pressure growth, visit some campuses).
August and fall: intensive growth and blooming (supplemental essays, applications, refining and polishing).
Progress in this process doesn’t always look like a checklist steadily filling in. Sometimes it looks like sitting with a half-finished essay while an idea ripens, or taking a week away from applications so a student can show up fresh. That’s not a lack of ambition; it’s respect for how real growth works.
I live in Los Angeles, so I may not keep a garden like my dad did, but I hold tightly to what he modeled: when you honor the rhythm of the growing season—planting, tending, resting, and then asking for more at the right time—the blooming tends to take care of itself. College applications are no different. With the right pacing, students don’t just get through the process; they arrive at the finish line still themselves, and ready for what comes next.
