Lots of people here can help them with essays.
I understand it’s money your family needs now, but try to figure out how many hours you can afford to hang on without their help and make sure they dedicate these hours to essay writing. If it’s got ro be now, it’ll be now. I’d say if they can find even 2 hours every week from now till Fall (or even less) and work with people from this forum, that’s enough to get something ready. Can your family afford to give them “2 hours/investment-in-future” per week or is that the difference between having a roof and homelessness?
You can frame it like Michel’s experiment with the marshmallow: if you delay a bit, the rewards are high so the trade off makes you lose in the short term but win double in the not long/a bit longer term. (Yes I know it’s not a matter of controlling impulses but helping wirh basic, urgent needs, which is why it is so difficult.)
Btw: Twins may well get into the same school. (Colleges are well aware that if 2 twins apply and only one gets in, s/he may well refuse to attend without the twin.)
@econpop: I hope he sees it’s not all or nothing. I understand the priority was getting away from a place/family, but hopefully he can take even one class per term at a CC to keep the momentum going.