Hurricane Application is coming....are you ready? 
David Brunk, Severn School
September 17, 2025 

Hurricane Application has intensified overnight, and the consensus model indicates that Application will reach major hurricane status within two weeks. While there is considerable spread in terms of the precise track of the storm, most analysts agree that Application will be an impressively long-lived and potentially destructive cyclone.

A strained and slightly pessimistic metaphor, perhaps, but there are several similarities between the actual hurricane season and the work we do. Forecasters predict what will unfold on the macro level (think La Niña and the demographic cliff), and non-experts have a tendency to prognosticate about outcomes with individual applications and specific schools. (Consider this overheard gem: “This is a great year to apply to Brown because there are going to be fewer international students!”) Unfortunately, “strained and pessimistic” also describes many students’ relationships with the college process.

Application season is indeed upon us. As has seemingly been the case for the past several years, the season started earlier than ever as more students nationwide are applying to schools with October deadlines. Compressed application seasons lead to more stress for students, and we are tasked with helping students navigate the turbulent waters and find their way to safe harbor. 

The role with which we are likely most comfortable is that of the lighthouse illuminating the way forward. Students still churn through the sea while we help them avoid the eddies and shoals. Even the brightest light will be attenuated through the rolling fog, but we and the students must learn to accommodate the uncertainty inherent in the process. I will speak for myself in saying that the role with which I am least comfortable is that of the tugboat, especially when the towed vessel needs to do little more than turn on its engines. This is part of the job, of course, but I believe that we and the students are best served if we can serve as nudgeboats, instead. 

A nudgeboat in a hurricane? A preposterous proposal, if we were talking about an actual tropical cyclone, which is an awesome natural phenomenon. Hurricane Application is entirely of our own species’ making, and it is up to our individual and collective ingenuity to cut through the maelstrom of media hype, misinformation, and societal pressures to empower students to chart their own courses. As educators, it is incumbent upon us to nudge students towards becoming improved or more fully realized versions of themselves. We know they can swim, so we should resist throwing out the life preserver too quickly. Just as lower surface sea temperatures weaken a hurricane, the extent to which we can lower the temperature in the college process will have a dramatic effect on the student experience. 

Friends – let us nudge, inform, illuminate, and advise those in our charge. This includes our students and each other. As we fight through our own headwinds, let us also be present for each other by sharing our good graces and good humor. And, yes, this is the season to nudge each other. Personally, I will take as many nudges as I can get.

Colleagues on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts – be safe. You are truly on the front lines of the hurricane season.