You also mentioned threatening. I don’t know what’s gone wrong and I hate criticizing parenting styles, but this seems to have all gone so wrong. Contrary to what some think, it doesn’t actually take months to write a good essay. A talented kid can do it with space for rewrites in a couple of weeks, easy. And “years of hard work and sacrifice” are unlikely to hinge on an essay being “perfect”, whatever that is.
It seems to me a common thread thread in some of these stories is kids pushing back against unrelenting parental pressure. Especially after they gave already spent their high school career full of “hard work and sacrifice”. Give them some space to breathe and trust them to deliver at the end.
Glad to hear it’s worked out. I think the first two aspects are important.