<p>“Mizo, I guess I could have done that, but the dilemma is: if she doesn’t want UCLA enough to bother, should I really do this for her?”</p>
<p>You’re the parent. You set the rules according to your own values.</p>
<p>As for me, I wouldn’t penalize one of my kids for applying to but then not winning a scholarship to a school that they wanted to go to. I would penalize one of my kids for not applying. If the kid didn’t bother to spend the time to apply for the scholarship, I’d hold the kid accountable for taking out the loan amount or earning the amount of money that the scholarship could have brought or going to a cheaper college.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s too much to expect a young person to invest the couple of hours in applying for a scholarship that could help pay for the college of their choice. Certainly, my husband and I have to work far more than a couple of hours to earn a couple of thousand dollars, plus we have more things to worry about than teens have to be concerned about.</p>